Geology In

Pamukkale: Amazing Geological Wonder

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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Pamukkale is actually Turkish for “cotton castle”, a name that we think manages to characterize the true inner “fluffiness” of this place.</span><br />
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If we are talking about natural beauty, the Pamukkale is one of the most epic wonders. With its fluffy cotton pools and geologic heritage, it is beautiful from all angles.<br />
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Pamukkale's terraces are made of travertine, a sedimentary rock deposited by water from the hot springs. <br />
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In this area, there are 17 hot water springs in which the temperature ranges from 35 °C (95 °F) to 100 °C (212 °F). The water that emerges from the spring is transported 320 metres (1,050 ft) to the head of the travertine terraces and deposits calcium carbonate on a section 60 to 70 metres (200 to 230 ft) long covering an expanse of 24 metres (79 ft) to 30 metres (98 ft).  <br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Photo: Brocken Inaglory</td></tr>
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Thermal sources on an important fault line of western Anatolia in Pamukkale are warmed up by subterranean heat and come out at 33-36 C. The water contains calcium hydro carbonate. Tectonic movements triggered frequent earthquakes in this area and gave rise to the emergence of a number of very hot springs. The water from these springs created Pamukkale with its large mineral content. <br />
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Measurements made at the source of the springs find atmospheric levels of 725 mg/l carbon dioxide, by the time this water flows across the travertines, this figure falls to 145 mg/l. Likewise calcium carbonate falls from 1200 mg/l to 400 mg/l and calcium 576.8 mg/l to 376.6 mg/l. From these results, it is calculated that 499.9 mg of CaCO3 is deposited on the travertine for every liter of water. This means that for a flow rate of 1 l/s of water 43,191 grams (1,523.5 oz) are deposited daily.<br />
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The average density of a travertine is 1.48 g/cm3 implying a deposit of 29.2 dm3. Given that the average flow of the water is 465.2 l/s this implies that it can whiten 13,584 square meters (146,220 sq ft) a day, but in practice, this area coverage is difficult to attain. These theoretical calculations indicate that up to 4.9 square kilometers it can be covered with a white deposit of 1 millimeter (0.039 in) thickness.<br />
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The underground volcanic activity which causes the hot springs also forced carbon dioxide into a cave, which was called the Plutonium, which here means "place of the god Pluto".<br />
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It is located in Turkey's Inner Aegean region, in the River Menderes valley, which has a temperate climate for most of the year.<br />
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<b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">See also:</span></b><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><a href="https://www.geologyin.com/2016/02/the-rainbow-mountains-in-peru-very.html" target="_blank">The Rainbow Mountains in Peru Very Amazing</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><a href="https://www.geologyin.com/2017/11/mountain-of-god-weirdest-volcano-in.html" target="_blank"><span data-offset-key="3tdjq-0-0"><span data-text="true">'Mountain of God' the Weirdest Volcano in the World</span></span></a></span><br />
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Pamukkale: Amazing Geological Wonder

Pamukkale is actually Turkish for “cotton castle”, a name that we think manages to characterize the true inner “fluffiness” of this pla...

Scientists Unearth Huge Claw From 110-million-year-old Carnivorous Dinosaur

dinosaur, Earth History, extinction 7:56 PM

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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Fossilised 20 centimetre long hand claw of theropod discovered at Eric the West site on Victoria’s Otway Coast. Credit: Stephen Poropat/Museums Victoria</td></tr>
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Swinburne and Museums Victoria have announced the discovery of several theropod bones, including a 20 centimeter long hand claw, from the Otway Coast of Victoria.<br />
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The bones were found in the Eumeralla Formation, a geological deposit that is approximately 107 million years old.<br />
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Fossils of theropods—the group of dinosaurs that includes such famous predators as Tyrannosaurus and Velociraptor, as well as modern birds—are relatively rare in Australia. The new Victorian specimens were discovered at a site known as "Eric the Red West' on the Otway Coast between 2011 and 2017, by volunteers working on Dinosaur Dreaming team's annual digs.<br />
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These digs are held each February and are coordinated by husband and wife paleontologists, Swinburne's Professor Patricia Vickers-Rich and Dr. Thomas Rich from Museums Victoria.<br />
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Previously, the Eric the Red West site had produced the skeleton of <i>Diluvicursor pickeringi</i>, a unique species of ornithopod dinosaur that was described and named in 2018.<br />
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The new theropod fossils were found isolated rather than as part of a skeleton. This is because they were carried some distance from where the theropods died by ancient, deep, fast-flowing rivers. These rivers snaked through the then-narrow rift valley (now Bass Strait) that opened as Australia and Tasmania separated during the Early Cretaceous period, more than 110 million years ago.</div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Victorian bones resemble bones from western Queensland</span></h4>
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Many of the theropod bones found at the Eric the Red West site are from a group of theropods called megaraptorids. Intriguingly, they look almost identical to those of the Australian megaraptorid theropod <i>Australovenator wintonensis</i> from western Queensland.<br />
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Australovenator lived around ten million years after—and thousands of kilometers further north than—the Victorian megaraptorid. This suggests that megaraptorid theropods roamed over a large part of Australia and for a long period of time.<br />
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The research on the new Victorian theropod remains was led by Swinburne's Dr. Stephen Poropat as part of a postdoctoral research fellowship in vertebrate palaeontology.<br />
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According to Dr. Poropat, who has conducted research on Australian dinosaurs for several years, the presence of megaraptorid theropods in Victoria that are nearly indistinguishable from Australovenator—but older than it by around ten million years—is unusual.<br />
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"The similarities between the Victorian megaraptorid remains and Australovenator are striking," Dr. Poropat says.<br />
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"If we had found these theropod bones in Queensland, we would probably have called them Australovenator wintonensis. But they're from Victoria, which prompts the question: "Could one dinosaur species exist for more than ten million years, across eastern Australia?" Maybe."<br />
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Australovenator lived in Queensland around 95 million years ago, alongside several species of long-necked sauropod dinosaur (like <i>Diamantinasaurus matildae</i> and <i>Savannasaurus elliottorum</i>). However, the 107 million year-old rocks of western Victoria that produced the new theropod bones have not yielded a single scrap of sauropod bone.<br />
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"This is important, because it tells us that Australian megaraptorid theropods weren't entirely dependent on sauropods for food," says Dr. Poropat.<br />
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"We find megaraptorid teeth with sauropod carcasses in central Queensland all the time, but they seem to have been doing just fine in Victoria where sauropods seem to have been absent."<br />
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So were megaraptorid theropods relying on another food source in Victoria? Dr. Poropat thinks so. "Adult sauropods were many times heavier than adult megaraptorids, so attacking them would have been dangerous. What we do know is that another group of plant-eating dinosaurs—the ornithopods—were abundant in Victoria (based on bones) and in central Queensland (based on footprints).<br />
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"Although ornithopods might have been ideal meals for megaraptorids in both regions, Queensland's megaraptorids had another food choice—sauropod steaks! Whether they were fresh or on rotting carcasses, they would have been a pretty tempting item to have on the menu!"<br />
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The new theropod bones are held at Melbourne Museum. Another field trip to the Eric the Red West site is planned for November 2019. Dr. Poropat hopes that more megaraptorid bones might yet be found there.</div>
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<u><i><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">The above story is based on <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/02724634.2019.1666273" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">materials </a>provided by  Swinburne<a href="https://www.utech.edu.jm/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"> University of Technology</a>.</span></i></u></div>

Scientists Unearth Huge Claw From 110-million-year-old Carnivorous Dinosaur

Fossilised 20 centimetre long hand claw of theropod discovered at Eric the West site on Victoria’s Otway Coast. Credit: Stephen Poropat/M...

New Way to Date Rocks

Geochemistry, Mining 7:33 PM

New Way to Date Rocks

Photo: The Mineral Collective A new way to date a common mineral could help pinpoint ore deposits and improve mineral exploration glob...

What Makes Earth's Surface Move?

earth, Geology, Tectonic 7:51 PM

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Do tectonic plates move because of motion in the Earth's mantle, or is the mantle driven by the movement of the plates? Or could it be that this question is ill-posed? This is the point of view adopted by scientists at the École Normale Supérieure -- PSL, the CNRS and the University of Rome 3, who regard the plates and the mantle as belonging to a single system. According to their simulations, published in Science Advances, it is mainly the surface that drives the mantle, although the dynamic balance between the two changes over supercontinent cycles.<br />
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Which forces drive tectonic plates? This has remained an open question ever since the advent of plate tectonic theory 50 years ago. Do the cold edges of plates slowly sinking into the Earth's mantle at subduction zones cause the motion observed at the Earth's surface? Or alternatively, does the mantle, with its convection currents, drive the plates? For geologists, this is rather like the problem of the chicken and the egg: the mantle apparently causes the plates to move, while they in turn drive the mantle...<br />
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To shed light on the forces at work, scientists from the Geology Laboratory of the École Normale Supérieure (CNRS/ENS -- PSL), the Institute of Earth Sciences (CNRS/Universities Grenoble Alpes and Savoie Mont Blanc/IRD/Ifsttar) and the University of Rome 3 treated the solid Earth as a single indivisible system and carried out the most comprehensive modelling to date of the evolution of a fictional planet very similar to the Earth.<br />
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The scientists first had to find the appropriate parameters, and then spend some nine months solving a set of equations with a supercomputer, reconstructing the evolution of the planet over a period of 1.5 billion years.<br />
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Using this model, the team showed that two thirds of the Earth's surface moves faster than the underlying mantle, in other words it is the surface that drags the interior, while the roles are reversed for the remaining third. This balance of forces changes over geological time, especially for the continents.<br />
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The latter are mainly dragged by deep motion within the mantle during the construction phases of a supercontinent, as in the ongoing collision between India and Asia: in such cases, the motion observed at the surface can provide information about the dynamics of the deep mantle. Conversely, when a supercontinent breaks up, the motion is mainly driven by that of the plates as they sink down into the mantle.<br />
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The computation contains a wealth of data that remains largely unexploited. The data obtained could help us to understand how mid-ocean ridges form and disappear, how subduction is triggered, or what determines the location of the plumes that cause vast volcanic outpourings.<br />
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<u><i><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">The above story is based on <a href="https://www.cnrs.fr/en/what-makes-earths-surface-move" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Materials</a> provided by <a href="http://www.cnrs.fr/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">CNRS</a>.</span></i></u></div>

What Makes Earth's Surface Move?

Do tectonic plates move because of motion in the Earth's mantle, or is the mantle driven by the movement of the plates? Or could it...

Woman Finds 3.29 Carat Diamond at Arkansas State Park

Diamonds, Mining, USA 6:44 PM

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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">An Arkansas woman walked away with a 3.29-carat <a href="https://www.geologyin.com/2016/08/the-only-diamond-mine-in-world-where.html" target="_blank">diamond at Crater of Diamonds State Park on Tuesday.</a></span><br />
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Pat Choate and her husband made the two-hour drive from Jacksonville, Arkansas to hunt for diamonds, according to a press release.<br />
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“Each time Pat and I see the road sign for the Crater of Diamonds while driving to the park, we always tell each other, ‘Let’s be like some of these other tourists and find a diamond within 30 minutes.’ We’ve been saying that for years, but this time it actually happened to us!” said her husband John Choate,<br />
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The couple entered the park’s 37.5-acre diamond search area around 2 p.m. Pat Choate had been searching for about 30 minutes when she made her find. According to her, “I saw something shiny several feet ahead of me and walked over to see what it was. I lost sight of it when I got close, but then I turned around I found the diamond lying beside me!”<br />
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Choate says she knew she had found a diamond right away and showed it to a few other visitors who were nearby. She carried it in a pill bottle to show her husband before taking it to the park’s Diamond Discovery Center, where park staff registered it as a brown diamond weighing 3.29 carats.<br />
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According to Assistant Superintendent Meghan Moore, “Mrs. Choate’s diamond is about the size of a chickpea, with a sparkling metallic luster and a beautiful hue similar to brandy. Like many larger diamonds from the park, it appears to be fractured and contains a few inclusions, which gives it a unique appearance.”<br />
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Choate’s gem is the third-largest diamond found in 2019, so far. It is the largest brown gem found at the park in more than two years, since a teenager from Centerton, Arkansas discovered a 7.44-carat brown diamond in March 2017.<br />
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Many people choose to name the diamonds they find at Crater of Diamonds State Park, and Choate named hers Illusive Dream, saying, “It has been a long time coming, a lot of dirt, and many years of searching—and I thank the good Lord for it! I know it’s not a perfect diamond, but it sure is a thrill!”<br />
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Choate says she plans on keeping her gem as a reminder of the memories she and her husband have made during their many visits to the park.<br />
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As of this writing, 426 diamonds have been registered at Crater of Diamonds State Park in 2019, weighing more than 84 carats.; 15 diamonds registered this year have weighed at least one carat each.<br />
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In total, over 75,000 diamonds have been unearthed at the Crater of Diamonds since the first diamonds were discovered in 1906 by John Huddleston, a farmer who owned the land long before it became an Arkansas State Park in 1972.<br />
<a href="https://www.geologyin.com/2016/08/the-only-diamond-mine-in-world-where.html" target="_blank">See:  The Only Diamond Mine In the World Where You Can Be the Miner</a><br />
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<u><i><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">The above story is based on <a href="https://www.arkansasstateparks.com/articles/visitor-finds-329-carat-diamond-crater-diamonds-state-park" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">materials </a>provided by Arkansas State Parks.</span></i></u></div>

Woman Finds 3.29 Carat Diamond at Arkansas State Park

An Arkansas woman walked away with a 3.29-carat diamond at Crater of Diamonds State Park on Tuesday. Pat Choate and her husband made ...

Underwater Volcano Creates Bubbles More Than a Quarter-Mile Across

News, volcano 7:58 PM

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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A satellite image of the Bogoslof Volcano shows volcanic clouds after an eruption.(Image: © DigitalGlobe via Getty Images via Getty Images)</td></tr>
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In the early 20th century, sailors near Alaska reported seeing black bubbles seeming to boil out from the sea, each one the size of the dome of the capitol building in Washington, D.C. They weren't the only sailors who reported the bizarre phenomenon, and they weren't mistaken, except for one thing … the bubbles were much larger. <br />
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When the mostly underwater Bogoslof volcano in the Aleutian Islands erupts, it produces giant bubbles that can reach up to 1,444 feet (440 meters) across, according to a new study. These bubbles are filled with volcanic gas, so when they burst they create volcanic clouds tens of thousands of feet in the sky, said lead author John Lyons, a research geophysicist at the Alaska Volcano Observatory of the U.S. Geological Survey.<br />
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These volcanic clouds were captured in satellite images taken after the Bogoslof volcano last erupted in 2017 — but the bubbles themselves were never photographed.<br />
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During the time of the eruption, a dull hum lingered in the air. Something was giving off low-frequency signals called infrasound — sounds below the level that humans can hear — that would last up to 10 seconds. Lyons and his team, who regularly monitor active volcanoes in Alaska, picked up on these signals in their data. But "it took us a while to figure out what they were," Lyons said.<br />
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It was only after searching the literature that the team came up with their hypothesis that the sound was the whisper of giant gas bubbles growing within the magma of the erupting volcano. They then came up with a computer model for what was happening.<br />
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In their model, a bubble bursts out from the column of magma underwater and begins to grow. Once it reaches the sea surface, it juts out in the shape of a hemisphere and continues to grow at an even faster rate in the lower density of the atmosphere. Eventually, the pressure outside the bubble exceeds the pressure inside and the bubble begins to contract; its film becomes unstable and ruptures, causing the bubble to burst. <br />
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When it bursts, volcanic gas — water vapor, sulfur dioxide and carbon dioxide — gets released partly back into the water, where it interacts with the lava, pulling it into pieces and producing ash and volcanic clouds, Lyons said.<br />
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The team hypothesized that the low-frequency hum emanates from the growth and oscillation of each bubble and the high-frequency signal represents the burst. <br />
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"These shallow explosive submarine eruptions are so rare," Lyons said. "There's a lot of undersea volcanism, but the majority of it happens under lots and lots of water very deep and all that extra pressure tends to suppress how explosive eruptions are."<br />
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But still, there are open questions and the results are limited by their methodology, which relied on a number of assumptions, he said. It's unclear, for example, what the water is like around the bubble — if it's like sea water or like wet cement. "It would be nice to be able to record this somewhere else, and make sure that our methodology is sound," Lyons said.<br />
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<br />
<br />
<u><i><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">The study was published  in the journal <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41561-019-0461-0" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Nature Geoscience</a>. </span></i></u><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; display: inline; float: none; font-family: "open sans" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><br />
</span></div>

Underwater Volcano Creates Bubbles More Than a Quarter-Mile Across

A satellite image of the Bogoslof Volcano shows volcanic clouds after an eruption.(Image: © DigitalGlobe via Getty Images via Getty Image...

What Happens Under the Yellowstone Volcano?

Tectonic, Yellowstone 7:58 PM

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The Yellowstone National Park in the USA with its geysers and hot springs is a great attraction for tourists. However, especially in times of little news, the media often focusses on the Yellowstone Supervolcano, which last erupted about 630,000 years ago. <br />
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Inevitably, then the question of the underlying geological structures will be posed. A recent study by Bernhard Steinberger of the German GeoForschungsZentrum and colleagues in the USA helps to better understand the processes in the Earth's interior. The paper will soon appear in the journal "Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems" published by the American Geophysical Union. It is based on modelling the Earth's mantle.<br />
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According to the model, beneath the Yellowstone volcano lies a so-called mantle plume: a chimney-like structure that reaches thousands of kilometres deep to the border of the Earth's core and mantle. The origin of the plume lies under the "Baja California," more than a thousand kilometers southwest of the national park. Evaluations of earthquake waves had already suggested something like this, but the idea of such a "mantle plume" did not fit in with the movement of the Earth's lithospheric plates.<br />
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It is clear that Yellowstone is a so-called intraplate volcano. Most volcanoes in the world are located at the borders of continental plates, either where material from the Earth's interior rises, as in Iceland, or where one continental plate submerges under the other and melts, as is the case along the American westcoast.<br />
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In contrast to plate boundary volcanism, intraplate volcanism goes back to "hotspots" under the Earth's crust. This can be imagined as a welding torch that melts the lithosphere from below -- where a hole is virtually burned through, a volcano grows. This is how Hawaii, for example, came into being.<br />
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The seismic data for Yellowstone, however, did not provide a clear picture for a long time. This has changed due to new data and refined measurement methods, which have allowed the deeper part of the plume to be imaged in a tomographic image. However, gaps remain in the upper mantle. <br />
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The data were not so clear here. The study from the GFZ now fills these gaps with a modelling result that maps the mantle plume consistently with the observation data. Accordingly, there are slow movements of the rock in the lower mantle of the Earth, which are directed southwest relative to the surface.<br />
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Like the plume of smoke of a steam ship, the mantle plume moves from Baja California to the north-northeast to the Yellowstone volcano. Bernhard Steinberger: "Our study contributes to a better understanding of intraplate volcanism and supports the hypothesis of a deep mantle plume. However, this has no impact on the risk assessment of the Yellowstone volcano."<br />
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<br />
<i><u><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">The above story is based on <a href="https://www.gfz-potsdam.de/en/media-and-communication/news/details/article/what-happens-under-the-yellowstone-volcano/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Materials</a> provided by <a href="https://www.gfz-potsdam.de/en/home/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">GFZ GeoForschungsZentrum Potsdam, Helmholtz Centre</a>.</span></u></i></div>

What Happens Under the Yellowstone Volcano?

The Yellowstone National Park in the USA with its geysers and hot springs is a great attraction for tourists. However, especially in t...

The Mystery of the Giant Crystals: How the 36-foot Geode of Pulpí Formed

caves, places to visit, Researches 7:00 PM

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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This is the geode of Pulpí.. Credit: Javier Trueba/MSF/Science Source</td></tr>
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<b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The Giant Geode of Pulpí – Unlocking the Mystery of the Giant Crystals</span></b><br />
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This incredible natural space is the Geode of Pulpí, the closest 
thing in real life to Superman's Fortress of Solitude: an amazing 
egg-shaped cavern where jagged shards of brilliant, clear crystal jut 
from the walls like teeth in a dragon's mouth.<br />
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The geode of Pulpí is an 11-meter hollow ovoid with crystal-paneled walls. It is like those familiar couplets of stone interiors covered with bright crystallites, but so large that several people can fit inside. The crystals, of up to two meters in size, are so transparent that they look like ice crystals. In this paper for Geology, Juan Manuel García-Ruiz and colleagues reveal the geological history that ended with the formation of the Pulpí geode.<br />
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As far as geodes go, Pulpí's is a giant – one of the largest known geodes in the world in fact.<br />
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In terms of cavernous chambers, though, it's actually tiny, but is large enough that multiple people can fit inside it at once, which isn't something you can say about most geode cavities.<br />
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Like the giant crystals of Naica in Mexico, the crystals of Pulpí are gypsum (calcium sulfate with two water molecules). García-Ruiz says, “To reveal their formation has been a very tough task because unlike in the case of Naica, where the hydrothermal system is still active, the large geode of Pulpí is a fossilized environment.”<br />
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The team performed a study of the geology and geochemistry of the abandoned mine where the geode was found, including a detailed mapping of the underground mining works, which has been used to allow the tourist visits in the mine.<br />
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They found that the crystals of Pulpi formed at around 20 °C, at a shallow depth where the temperature fluctuations of the climate are still perceptible. These temperature fluctuations, being below the maximum solubility of gypsum (40 °C), led to the dissolution and recrystallization amplifying a maturation process that is known as Ostwald maturation.<br />
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Says García-Ruiz, "This is somewhat like the temperature cycles in crystal quality control in industrial processes." A continuous supply of salt for the formation of the crystals was provided by the dissolution of anhydrite (the anhydrous form of calcium sulfate), the mechanism accounting for the formation of the large crystals of Naica.<br />
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Because of their purity, the crystals forming the geode cannot be dated precisely. But indirect constraint can be done: "They grew for sure after the desiccation of the Mediterranean Sea that occurred 5.6 million years ago. They are most probably younger than two million years but older than 60.000 years because this is the age of the carbonate crust coating one of the large gypsum crystal," says García-Ruiz.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Credit: Javier Trueba/MSF/Science Source</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">See also: </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><a href="http://www.geologyin.com/2016/02/the-rainbow-mountains-in-peru-very.html" target="_blank">The Rainbow Mountains in Peru very Amazing</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><a class="OYKEW4D-e-i" href="http://www.geologyin.com/2014/11/the-huge-cave-mines-at-naica-mexico.html" target="_blank">Cave of Crystals "Giant Crystal Cave" at Naica, Mexico</a> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<u><i><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">The above story is based on <a href="https://pubs.geoscienceworld.org/gsa/geology/article/574380/The-origin-of-large-gypsum-crystals-in-the-Geode" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">materials </a>provided by<a href="https://www.geosociety.org/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"> Geological Society Of America.</a></span></i></u></div>

The Mystery of the Giant Crystals: How the 36-foot Geode of Pulpí Formed

This is the geode of Pulpí.. Credit: Javier Trueba/MSF/Science Source The Giant Geode of Pulpí – Unlocking the Mystery of the Giant Cr...

Trilobite Fossils Show Conga Line Frozen for 480 Million Years

Earth History, extinction, Fossils 6:55 PM

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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Ampyx priscus in linear formation (Moroccan Lower Ordovician Fezouata Shale). Credit: Jean Vannier, Laboratoire de Geologie de Lyon: Terre, Planètes, Environnement (CNRS / ENS de Lyon / Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1)</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Arthropod fossils dating back 500million years show the creatures died in an orderly line 'while migrating'</span></h4>
Fossils of ancient arthropods discovered in linear formation may indicate a collective behaviour either in response to environmental cues or as part of seasonal reproductive migration. The findings, which are being published in Scientific Reports this week, suggest that group behaviours comparable to those of modern animals existed as early as 480 million years ago.<br />
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Collective and social behaviour is known to have evolved through natural selection over millions of years and modern arthropods provide numerous examples, such as the migratory chains of caterpillars, ants or spiny lobsters. Yet, the origins and early history of collective behaviour has remained largely unknown.<br />
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Jean Vannier and colleagues described several linear clusters of Ampyx priscus, a trilobite arthropod from the lower Ordovician period (ca 480 Million years ago) of Morocco. The trilobites, which were between 16 and 22 millimetres long, had a stout spine at the front of their bodies and a pair of very long spines at the back. In each cluster of trilobite fossils examined by the authors, individuals were arranged in a line, with the front of their bodies facing in the same direction, maintaining contact via their spines. <br />
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The authors suggest that, given the scale of the patterns seen, this consistent linearity and directionality is unlikely to be the result of passive transportation or accumulation by currents. Instead, it is more likely that Ampyx was killed suddenly while travelling, for example by being buried rapidly by sediment during a storm.<br />
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The authors suggest that Ampyx probably migrated in groups and used their long projecting spines to maintain a single-row formation by physical contact, as they moved along the seafloor. This may have been a stress response to disturbance of their environment by storms, detected by motion and touch sensors, which motivated Ampyx to migrate to quieter and deeper waters. <br />
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A comparable behaviour is seen in present-day spiny lobsters. Alternatively, the pattern may have been the result of a seasonal reproductive behaviour involving the migration of sexually mature individuals to spawning grounds. Knowing that Ampyx was blind, the authors hypothesize that the trilobites may have coordinated using sensory stimulation via spines and chemicals.<br />
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The discovery shows that a 480-million-year-old arthropod may have used its neural complexity to develop a temporary collective behaviour.<br />
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<br />
<u><i><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">The above story is based on <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-019-51012-3" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">materials </a>provided by <a href="https://www.universite-lyon.fr/version-anglaise/the-universite-de-lyon-is-a-world-class-academic-site-of-excellence-6709.kjsp" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">The University of Lyon</a>.</span></i></u></div>

Trilobite Fossils Show Conga Line Frozen for 480 Million Years

Ampyx priscus in linear formation (Moroccan Lower Ordovician Fezouata Shale). Credit: Jean Vannier, Laboratoire de Geologie de Lyon: Te...