Boneyard XIV

Welcome to the 24th edition of the Boneyard. The blog carnival for everything old. Zach gave a good carnival last month, but there was something missing. Something obviously out of place. After pondering about it all month I realize this blog, The Other 95%, was the only blog that submitted a palaeo-invertebrate entry out of 15 total links. 1 out of 15, that's 6.7%, meaning that the amount of vertebrate entries were 93.3%. I was shocked, flabbergasted! While this edition will also be laden with vertebrate-centric scriblings, I'll will even out the score and ensure that at least 93.3% of the links, images and video for this edition more accurately reflect the diversity of animal life. Enjoy!

Brokeback Invertebrate: a tale of two spineless palaeontologists out in the desert searching for fossil ammonites... alone.
Bond, Peter Bond that is, presents his palaeo-art for all the world to critique. There is also an interesting discussion on how a fossil skeleton that is 95% complete can have widely varying artistic renderings.

Did you know that the world's oldest fossil animal tracks were from an invert?

Fossil serpulid worm tubes at the National History Museum, London. So cool!!!!
Zach over at When Pigs Fly Returns gets a slight invert bent discussing the weirdest dinosaur I've seen in recent memory. Check out its arms and learn what MYRMECOPHAGY means and what that (unfortunately) means for some poor invertebrate. Also, be sure to check out his virtual palaeo-art show!


The Australian government gets it.

In more recent historical news, Carl Zimmer wrote an excellent piece on the allure of big antlers. The extremely productive (despite what he might say of himself, his blog record speaks for itself) Brian Switek writes on horsies and shares a fascinating entry on "Professor Paleozoic" from the 19th century.

On the topic of palaeontological history, Over at Cryology and Co. there is a wonderful post on an extraordinary geologist, William Smith, the from 18th century. Smith wandered the hills and mapped out the geology and described such wonderful fossils as these below.



Zinjanthropus gives us a reason to take a closer look at fossils with an open mind and fresh view.

Traumador the Tyrannosaur gives an expose on Albertosaurus (or is it?) and a provides an interesting narrative on Joeseph Tyrrell.

Blastoids from Belgium!!! Where invertebrate palaeontology meets rockstardom.

Will Baird discusses the caste ecology of carboniferous times. In a very well-written essay taking a whole ecosystem approach, instead of focusing on a particular organism, and has some fascinating drawings of a land much foreign to our current time. Though hints of some of these amazing trees can still be found in strange areas such as southern Africa, Madagascar and other exotic locales.

Of course, saving the best for last. Todd Oakley gets the inverts major props for having an enormous phossilized phallus. Of course, he was naturally drawn to its large "eyes". Sure Todd ;)

There was also some good food for thought in the last edition of Linnaeus' Legacy, hosted here by Eric. Be sure to stay tuned for the 25th edition of the Boneyard at The Big Dinosaur Lie next month and remember to worship thy trilobite!

Seeking Boneyard Submissions!

Next week on Oct. 7 I am set to host the Boneyard blog carnival! The Boneyard is a collection of blog posts on all things palaeo. Lets get lots of palaeo-invert posts!

I need your submissions so dig through your strata and dust off the fossils you have buried under all that other muck. Leave a comment with link here or email me (address over there in the sidebar -->) submissions. Submissions do not have to be from your own blog. You can submit entries you liked that other people wrote too.

Who's got the oldest?

In my post about harvestmen, I mentioned the ancient fossilized penis found in 2003, that dated back 400 - 412 million years ago. Unfortunately, I forgot the Dec, 2003 publishing of an even older specimen of male genitals. In Herefordshire England, 425 mya, an ostracod was buried in volcanic ash during the Silurian Period and quickly mineralized, preserving even the soft tissues.


Originally in Science: 10.1126/science.302.5651.1645

Colymbosathon eclecticos, Greek for "Amazing swimmer with a large penis", could easily be mistaken for a modern ostracod, so similar is the morphology. Like the harvestman example before, this indicates a group with a basic body plan (and even much of the detail) that has shown very little change over a 400+ million year period. Ostracods are well known in the fossil record back to about 500 mya. From this find they have been relatively stable for almost the entire time.

It also shows two examples (one terrestrial, one marine) of male copulatory organs from the late Silurian–early Devonian periods. In the ostracod this is especially interesting as it extends the identification of specific gender in a group that is very common in the fossil record, but for which previous gender identification was only to the Cretaceous Period (65–145 mya).

Not to leave the lady inverts out, where there is a male copulatory organ there hopefully can be found a receptive female. It took the same team a few years to process and publish the finding of a female ostracod from the same area, known as the Herefordshire Lagerstätte. The unique thing about this new fossil ostracod ? Hint the new species name is Nymphatelina gravida.

Like C. eclecticos, this ostracod was found in the Herefordshire Lagerstätte and her soft organs were remarkably well preserved, including her eggs. When the team used their grinding and 3D reconstruction technique, they discovered what appears to be a brood of some 20 eggs preserved in her shell. The same brooding is observed in modern ostracods, such as the modern Gigantocypris dracontovalis pictured below the 3D reconstruction of N. gravida. Another remarkably conserved body plan and biological behavior (parental brooding).

Oh, Nymphatelina gravida translates roughly to "young pregnant ocean guardian woman."


Top is digital reconstruction of N. gravida brooding it's eggs (yellow), bottom is the modern ostracod G. dracontovalis also brooding.
Original image from University of Leicester


Update: Todd has reason to ask "Who has the oldest" of C. eclecticos as well, the oldest ostracod eyes in Ostra-blog 4.

References:

D. J. Siveter (2003). An Ostracode Crustacean with Soft Parts from the Lower Silurian Science, 302 (5651), 1749-1751 DOI: 10.1126/science.1091376

David J. Siveter, Derek J. Siveter, Mark D. Sutton, Derek E.G. Briggs (2007). Brood care in a Silurian ostracod Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 274 (1609), 465-469 DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2006.3756

Mark D. Sutton, Derek E. G. Briggs, David J. Siveter, and Derek J. Siveter (2001). Methodologies for the Visualization and Reconstruction of Three-Dimensional Fossils from the Silurian Herefordshire Lagerstätte. Palaeontologia Electronica, 4 (1)

New Aphid Species from eBay Purchase

Wow, biologists need to peruse eBay more! I remember ChrisM talking about this before with regard to sea stars. This time a professor purchased a small piece of amber with an insect in it form eBay for 20 pounds, BBC reports:

"Dr Harrington sent the specimen to Professor Ole Heie, a fossil aphid expert in Denmark.

"He discovered that it was something that hadn't been described before," Dr Harrington explained.

The insect itself is 3-4mm long and is encased in a 40-50 million-year-old piece of amber about the size of a small pill.

"I had thought it would be rather nice to call it Mindarus ebayi," said Dr Harrington.

"Unfortunately using flippant names to describe new species is rather frowned upon these days."

Instead, Professor Heie named the new species after Dr Harrington.

"It's not uncommon to find insects in amber... but I'm not sure that one has turned up on eBay that has been undiscovered before. It's a rather unusual route to come by [a new species]," the researcher, based at Rothamsted Research in Hertfordshire, explained.

He said the insect would have fed on a tree called Pinetes succinifer which is itself now long since extinct."

Thank FSM that it was not named after eBay LOL.

356 Fossil Animals Found in X-Rayed Amber

This is just an awesome find. From the European Synchotron Radiation Facility:

"Opaque amber accounts for up to 80% of the amber found in Cretaceous sites like those in Charentes. From the outside, it is impossible to tell whether something may be contained inside. Malvina Lak and her colleagues from the University of Rennes and Paul Tafforeau of the ESRF, together with the National Museum of Natural History of Paris, have applied a synchrotron X-ray imaging technique known as propagation phase contrast microradiography to the investigation of opaque amber. This technique permits light to reach the interior of this dark amber, which resembles a stone to the human eye. “Researchers have tried to study this kind of amber for many years with little or no success. This is the first time that we can actually discover and study the fossils contained within”, says Paul Tafforeau.

The scientists imaged 640 pieces of amber from the Charentes region in south-western France. They discovered 356 fossil animals, ranging from wasps and flies, to ants and even spiders and acarians. The team was able to identify the family for 53% of the inclusions.[...]"

"Examples of virtual 3D extraction of organisms embedded in opaque amber: a) Gastropod Ellobiidae; b) Myriapod Polyxenidae; c) Arachnid; d) Conifer branch (Glenrosa); e) Isopod crustacean Ligia; f) Insect hymenopteran Falciformicidae. Credits: M. Lak, P. Tafforeau, D. Néraudeau (ESRF Grenoble and UMR CNRS 6118 Rennes)."

Hat tip to Martin!

Early Humans Knew How to Pahty Pahty

From CNN, a bit old in blog years but I like it:

"In one of the earliest hints of "modern" living, humans 164,000 years ago put on primitive makeup and hit the seashore for steaming mussels, new archaeological finds show.
art.early.seafood.ap.jpg

Curtis Marean examines a section of cave at Pinnacle Point, South Africa.

Call it a beach party for early man.

But it's a beach party thrown by people who weren't supposed to be advanced enough for this type of behavior. What was found in a cave in South Africa may change how scientists believe Homo sapiens marched into modernity.

....

Researchers found three hallmarks of modern life at Pinnacle Point overlooking the Indian Ocean near South Africa's Mossel Bay: harvested and cooked seafood, reddish pigment from ground rocks, and early tiny blade technology. Scientific optical dating techniques show that these hallmarks were from 164,000 years ago, plus or minus 12,000 years."

Tiny blade technology? lol Early research program in palaeonanotech!

Inverts Hit a Double! Inverts 5: Verts 2

As you may have heard, a "man-size" fossil sea scorpion was recently found in Germany. Though I focused on the reporting and not the cool science, Deep Sea News confirms that this is definitely a score for the invertebrates. With chelicerae as a big as a toddler, I am pretty sure I would be sliced in half, though I would put up a good fight... Unfortunately, the largest known arthropods are hypothesized to be wiped out large toothy armor-plated fish. So, I am forced to give a point to both parties.

But my friend over at Lunartalks (hat tip to Peter Mc from the Beagle Project) more than makes up for Eurypterids dropping the ball. He reports on Jelly swarms committing genocide at salmon farms off of Ireland and how it makes him really feel.

For those keeping track:
Inverts 1: Verts 0
Inverts 2: Verts 0
Inverts 3: Verts 0
Inverts 3: Verts 1

Man-Sized Sea Scorpion Fossil Found In Germany

Picture from CNN.com article with the following caption, "The ancient sea scorpion, at 2.5 meters (8 feet) in length, was bigger than the average man is tall."

In my inbox this morning was this interesting article from cnn.com titled Scientist finds fossilized claw of man-sized sea scorpion. Naturally, I was curious about man-sized fossil arthropods! While the find itself is great, the reporting was rather amusing. Large things and fossils always draw out the creativity in reporting, although many of the clichés have been well worn-in through time. I could quote mine this till the cows come home! For instance the opening line:

"This was a bug you couldn't swat and definitely couldn't step on."

How cliché is that? Why is always assumed whenever a 'bug' is mentioned swatting and stepping usually ensue? The following line mentions paleontologists "stumbling" upon the find. As if paleontologists are just out bumbling around without a clue. The author negates himself later in the article by describing how detailed the fossil hunt was, including seeing dark patches in the rock that signaled to them a patch of fossilized organic matter.

Of course they do make themselves favorable by printing this quote from Simon Braddy, one of the studies coauthors (to be printed the next Royal Society's Biology Letters):

"Hundreds of millions of years ago, these sea scorpions had the upper hand over vertebrates -- backboned animals like ourselves."

This next quote bothers me, can anyone figure out why? I will send an Aliens of the Deep IMAX movie poster and NOAA Ocean Explorer sticker to a person selected by my excel random number generator from all the correct replies. Contest closes Friday, November 23, at midnight. Email responses to kzelnio:at:gmail:dot:com. The winning response will be published on my blog and I might quote mine other interesting replies at my own discretion. The rules are that I am requiring a minimum 250 to maximum 500 word short answer on why this statement is misleading:

"The research found a type of sea scorpion that was almost half a yard longer than previous estimates and the largest one ever to have evolved."

New Fossil Crustacean Pushes Back Arthropod Origins

Finding any new fossil is rare. Finding invertebrate fossils is even rarer due to the squishy nature of most invertebrates. They just do not preserve well over time. Sometimes the wandering paleontologist, who must look very carefully under a field scope through dust and debris, can find parts of squishy invertebrates like scolodonts (polychaete jaws), coral rubble, carbonate shell cement, or maybe sea star or sponge spicules. On even rarer conditions, this careful wandering paleontologist may find imprints of the outlines of squishy invertebrates that have no hard parts, none whatsoever.

China has been an amazing hot spot for fossils in recent years. Entire ecosystems have been preserved. Careful, wandering paleontologists are able to move beyond describing the random individual to describing how some dinosaurs formed nests, embryonic fossils still in the egg, biometric trends in populations of fossil fish or molluscs, interspecific interactions and just about anything else. The Chinese paleontologists have been prolific, publishing widely on their discoveries, inviting western paleontologists on digs and getting the Chinese people and government serious about their fossil wealth. They do have a problem with fossil poachers, but the rate of discovery remains high and stiffer penalties are becoming more commonplace.
"Reconstruction of Y. dianensis on the basis of a larval stage with eight thoracomeres (developmental stage 4). The head limbs are drawn in median view and the trunk limbs in lateral view."-Zhang et al. 2007
Zhang et al. 2007 present a new find of a crustacean with some interesting morphology and even more interesting implications. Yicaris dianensis (above drawing) new species, is named for both the people, the Yi, and the place the fossils originated from, Dian. The suffix 'caris' refers to something that is a crustacean and the suffix 'ensis' refers to being from a place. What is remarkable to me is that 6 successional developmental stages are represented in pre-Cambrian strata. This is close to the hypothesized origin of the Arthropoda, specifically the Crustacea. So this form should theoretically be the closest ontologically to the earliest Crustacea.

"With such ontogeny data and having the age of the fossil as a time marker, it is possible to more precisely include ontogenetic evolutionary pathways in the reconstruction of relationships and ground patterns of stem species and monophyla. According to our analysis, Y. dianensis represents the first undoubted eucrustacean known from the Lower Cambrian (the single previously described Lower Cambrian putative eucrustacean species lacks eucrustacean characters) and can serve as a substantial tool for testing relevant character acquisition and phylogenetic hypotheses. This is of particular importance because crustacean phylogeny has gained new interest by recent studies using neurobiological, developmental, biological and molecular investigations."

Y. dianensis shares many features in common with modern day branchiopods and cephalocarids of which I won't go into detail. Some of the similarities are in the mouthparts and other structures involved in food uptake or feeding. The interesting character for this crustacean is called the epipod, or "above-foot", which are lobe-shaped osmoregulatory or respiratory outgrowths on the external limb bases of various Eucrustaceans (SEM below). This structure is derived from setae and many of the Eucrustacea ("true" Crustacea) still bear at least one epipod on some of its appendages. Some authors even believe insect wings are derived from epipods (here and here).

"Fragment of trunk (holotype; developmental stage 6); lateral view"-Zhang et al. 2007; ep=epipod
This all comes home to pushing back the time of arthropod origins as stated by Zhang et al.

Its stratigraphical position provides substantial support to the proposition that the main cladogenic event that gave rise to the Arthropoda was before the Cambrian

It was found in the Orsten layer, which is rich in Phosphatocopina, the sister group to Eucrustacea characterized by a phosphotatized cuticle. By using Lyell's principle of Uniformitarianism, we can assume that since the characters represented in Y. dianensis are present in the Lower Cambrian, Its ancestors possessed some or all of its characters. Hence arthropod origins are likely pre-Cambrian.