(Press-News.org) 'It is exciting to discover that a common group of fossils that we thought we knew a lot about may well have been hood-winking us as to their true identity, which we now realise because we have their beautifully fossilised soft-parts. A case of a 'wolf in sheep's clothing''- Professor David Siveter, University of Leicester
An international team of researchers have made an extremely rare discovery of a species of animal - related to crabs, lobsters and shrimps – that is new to science.
Scientists from the universities of Leicester, Oxford, Imperial and Yale have announced their discovery of a new and scientifically important fossil species of ostracod in the journal, Proceedings of The Royal Society B. The research was funded by the Natural Environment Research Council.
The discovered species, which is up to 10 millimetres long, is special because it is exceptionally well preserved, complete with not only the shell but also the soft parts – its body, limbs, eyes, gills and alimentary system. Such discoveries are extremely rare in the fossil record.
The discovery of the tiny shelled arthropod was made in 425 million year old rocks in Herefordshire, Welsh Borderland. The rocks at the site date to the Silurian period of geological time, when southern Britain was a sea area on a small continent situated in warm, southerly subtropical latitudes. The ostracods and associated marine animals living there were covered by a fall of volcanic ash that preserved them frozen in time.
Professor David Siveter, of the University of Leicester Department of Geology, said: "The two ostracod specimens discovered represent a genus and species new to science, named Pauline avibella. The genus is named in honour of a special person and avibella means 'beautiful bird', so-named because of the fancied resemblance of a prominent feature of the shell to the wing of a bird."
"Ostracods are the most abundant fossil arthropods, occurring ubiquitously as bivalved shells in rocks of the last 490 million years, and are common in most water environments today. The find is important because it is one of only a handful preserving the fossilised soft-tissues of ostracods. Its assignment to a particular group of ostracods based on knowledge of its biology is at odds with its shell form, thus urging caution in interpreting the classification of fossil ostracods based on shell characters alone."
"The preservation of soft-parts of animals is a very rare occurrence in the fossil record and allows unparalleled insight into the ancient biology, community structure and evolution of animals - key facts that that would otherwise be lost to science. The fossils known from the Herefordshire site show soft-part preservation and are of global importance."
The fossils were reconstructed 'virtually', by using a technique that involves grinding each specimen down, layer by layer, and photographing it at each stage. Ten millimetres is relatively tiny, but at an incremental level of 20 µm (micrometres) that yields 500 slices, which can then be pieced together in a computer to provide a full, three-dimensional image of each fossil, outside and in.
Professor Siveter added: "Fossil discoveries in general help elucidate our own place in the tree of life. This discovery adds another piece of knowledge in the jigsaw of understanding the diversity and evolution of animals."
"It is exciting to discover that a common group of fossils that we thought we knew a lot about may well have been hood-winking us as to their true identity, which we now realise because we have their beautifully fossilised soft-parts. A case of a 'wolf in sheep's clothing'."
INFORMATION:
The research was undertaken together with Professor Derek Siveter and Dr Sarah Joomun (Oxford), Dr Mark Sutton (Imperial College London) and Professor Derek Briggs (Yale, USA).
Note:
The genus is named in honour of Pauline Siveter, in memoriam, late wife of the lead author of the paper.
Bibliographic reference:
Siveter DJ, Briggs DEG, Siveter DJ, Sutton MD, Joomun SC. 2012 A Silurian myodocope with preserved soft-parts: cautioning the interpretation of the shell-based ostracod record. Proc R Soc B 20122664.
The Royal Society is a self-governing Fellowship of many of the world's most distinguished scientists drawn from all areas of science, engineering, and medicine. The Society's fundamental purpose, as it has been since its foundation in 1660, is to recognise, promote, and support excellence in science and to encourage the development and use of science for the benefit of humanity.
The Society's strategic priorities emphasise its commitment to the highest quality science, to curiosity-driven research, and to the development and use of science for the benefit of society. These priorities are:
1. Promoting science and its benefits
2. Recognising excellence in science
3. Supporting outstanding science
4. Providing scientific advice for policy
5. Fostering international and global cooperation
6. Education and public engagement
For further information please visit http://royalsociety.org. Follow the Royal Society on Twitter at http://twitter.com/royalsociety or on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/theroyalsociety.
ABOUT NERC:
The Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) is the UK's main agency for funding and managing world-class research, training and knowledge exchange in the environmental sciences. It coordinates some of the world's most exciting research projects, tackling major issues such as climate change, environmental influences on human health, the genetic make-up of life on earth, and much more. NERC receives around £300 million a year from the government's science budget, which it uses to fund independent research and training in universities and its own research centres. www.nerc.ac.uk
Discovery of tiny fossil new to science
Rare find from 425 million years ago with body, limbs, eyes, gills and alimentary system preserved
2012-12-12
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
Was the sauropod dinosaurs' large size due to plant food? Scientists argue old idea still has legs
2012-12-12
The long necked sauropod dinosaurs were the largest land animals ever to walk the Earth – but why were they so large? A decade ago a team of plant ecologists from South Africa suggested that this was due to the nature of the plant food they ate, however these ideas have fallen out of favour with many dinosaur researchers. Now Liverpool John Moores University's (LJMU's) Dr David Wilkinson and Professor Graeme Ruxton of University of St Andrews, Scotland, argue that this idea still has legs.
The results have been published in the journal Functional Ecology published by ...
UAlberta medical researchers make key discovery in fight against Alzheimer's disease
2012-12-12
Medical researchers at the University of Alberta have discovered a drug intended for diabetes appears to restore memory in Alzheimer's brain cells.
Jack Jhamandas, a researcher with the Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry at the U of A, is the principal investigator with the team whose research results were recently published in the peer-reviewed publication The Journal of Neuroscience. He works in the Division of Neurology.
The team took brain tissue from animal models with Alzheimer's disease and tested the tissue in the lab, looking specifically at the cells' memory ...
Grains gang up to bear brunt of missile and meteorite impacts
2012-12-12
DURHAM, N.C. -- High-speed video of projectiles slamming into a bed of disks has given scientists a new microscopic picture of the way a meteorite or missile transfers the energy of its impact to sand and dirt grains.
The transfer is jerky, not smooth. "It was surprising just how unsmooth the slow-down of the intruding object was," Duke physicist Robert Behringer said. His team describes their new videos and impact analysis in the Dec. 7 Physical Review Letters. The research may change the way scientists model meteorite and missile impacts and their effects.
Scientists ...
New research helps predict susceptibility to Burkitt lymphoma
2012-12-12
WASHINGTON (Dec. 11, 2012) – New research, presented this morning at the 54th Annual Meeting of the American Society of Hematology (ASH), has identified important associations between Plasmodium falciparum (Pf) malaria and endemic Burkitt Lymphoma (eBL) that may help researchers identify young children who are more susceptible to eBL.
Unlike previous studies in which malaria infection alone was considered the important factor, this study approached the evolving complexity and heterogeneity of the humoral immune response to Pf as a key component for risk of developing ...
Ancient red dye powers new 'green' battery
2012-12-12
Rose madder – a natural plant dye once prized throughout the Old World to make fiery red textiles – has found a second life as the basis for a new "green" battery.
Chemists from The City College of New York teamed with researchers from Rice University and the U.S. Army Research Laboratory to develop a non-toxic and sustainable lithium-ion battery powered by purpurin, a dye extracted from the roots of the madder plant (Rubia species).
More than 3500 years ago, civilizations in Asia and the Middle East first boiled madder roots to color fabrics in vivid oranges, reds ...
Kentucky team inhibits Alzheimer's biomarkers in animal model by targeting astrocytes
2012-12-12
LEXINGTON, Ky. (Dec. 10, 2012) — A research team composed of University of Kentucky researchers has published a paper which provides the first direct evidence that activated astrocytes could play a harmful role in Alzheimer's disease. The UK Sanders-Brown Center on Aging has also received significant new National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding to further this line of study.
Chris Norris, an associate professor in the UK College of Medicine Department of Molecular and Biomedical Pharmacology, as well as a member of the faculty at the UK Sanders-Brown Center on Aging, ...
What causes hot flushes during menopause?
2012-12-12
Hot flushes affect millions of people, and not just women. Yet, it is still unclear what causes the episodes of temperature discomfort, often accompanied by profuse sweating.
Now a team of researchers around Dr. Naomi Rance, a professor in the department of pathology at the UA College of Medicine, has come closer to understanding the mechanism of hot flushes, a necessary step for potential treatment options down the road. This research was published recently in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
The team identified a group of brain cells known as KNDy ...
Rice cultivates green batteries from plant
2012-12-12
HOUSTON – (Dec. 11, 2012) – Here's a reason to be glad about madder: The climbing plant has the potential to make a greener rechargeable battery.
Scientists at Rice University and the City College of New York have discovered that the madder plant, aka Rubia tinctorum, is a good source of purpurin, an organic dye that can be turned into a highly effective, natural cathode for lithium-ion batteries. The plant has been used since ancient times to create dye for fabrics.
The discovery is the subject of a paper that appears today in Nature's online, open-access journal ...
My, what big teeth you have! Threatening objects appear closer
2012-12-12
When we're faced with things that seem threatening, whether it's a hairy spider or an angry mob, our goal is usually to get as far away as we can. Now, new research suggests that our visual perception may actually be biased to help motivate us to get out of harm's way.
When we're faced with a threat our bodies respond in ways that engage our fight-or-flight response and enable us to act quickly: Our heart rate and blood pressure ramp up, and we produce more of the stress hormone cortisol. But research suggests that the body may also demonstrate its preparedness through ...
Capturing circulating cancer cells could provide insights into how disease spreads
2012-12-12
ANN ARBOR—A glass plate with a nanoscale roughness could be a simple way for scientists to capture and study the circulating tumor cells that carry cancer around the body through the bloodstream.
Engineering and medical researchers at the University of Michigan have devised such a set-up, which they say takes advantage of cancer cells' stronger drive to settle and bind compared with normal blood cells.
Circulating tumor cells are believed to contribute to cancer metastasis, the grim process of the disease spreading from its original site to distant tissues. Blood tests ...
LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:
UCLA discovers first stroke rehabilitation drug to repair brain damage
Only around 1 in 10 common non-surgical and non-invasive treatments for back pain effective
Installing safety nets on Golden Gate Bridge linked to 73% decline in suicides
Increasing fruit, fiber, dairy and caffeine linked to lower risk of tinnitus
Does BMI become useless as we age?
Rice statistician earns $1 million CPRIT award to advance AI-powered precision medicine for prostate cancer
Whose air quality are we monitoring?
Team Hope rides (again) for cancer research at the Tour de Scottsdale
Researchers find missing link in autoimmune disorder
‘Democratizing chemical analysis’: FSU chemists use machine learning and robotics to identify chemical compositions from images
Leveraging data science for disease prediction in the fight against rheumatoid arthritis
Kennedy Krieger screening model improves early autism diagnosis for underserved communities
Blood pressure patterns during pregnancy predict later hypertension risk, study finds
Latest Alzheimer’s drug shown less effective in females than males
Moffitt study finds vaccine may improve breast cancer treatment outcomes
Adoption of international auditing standards leads to better financial reporting
Internal displacement in Syria used to reshape the country’s political and social landscape, new study shows
Building a safer future: Rice researcher works to strengthen Haiti’s earthquake resilience
Diverging views of democracy fuel support for authoritarian politicians, Notre Dame study shows
Bacteria invade brain after implanting medical devices
New platform lets anyone rapidly prototype large, sturdy interactive structures
Non-genetic theories of cancer address inconsistencies in current paradigm
Food and non-alcoholic drink products in Mexico were substantially reformulated to be healthier following the 2020 introduction of warning labels identifying products with excessive content of calorie
Conservation efforts are bringing species back from the brink, even as overall biodiversity falls
Conservation efforts analysis reveals which actions are most helpful for endangered species status
JSCAI special issue explores the transformative role of artificial intelligence in interventional cardiology
Wayne State University research making strides in autonomous vehicle and machine systems to make them safer, more effective
Thorny skates come in snack and party sizes. After a century of guessing, scientists now know why.
When did human language emerge?
Meteorites: A geologic map of the asteroid belt
[Press-News.org] Discovery of tiny fossil new to scienceRare find from 425 million years ago with body, limbs, eyes, gills and alimentary system preserved