2021

Giant Ammonites Once Thrived on Both Sides of Atlantic

Giant Ammonites Once Thrived on Both Sides of Atlantic

This was a replica that we used to show how big ammonites could grow. Made of polystyrene it squeaked as we rolled it down the beach at Lyme...

Tiny Crab Preserved in 100-million-year-old Amber Lived Among Dinosaurs

amber, Fossils 7:32 PM

<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-LXfZnXKYrl8/YXQ4g2yOZHI/AAAAAAAATYA/XGBmjO2R3uwosrN2Fxeqd2ua0dUp7fZDACLcBGAsYHQ/s1047/Cretapsara-athanata-Crab-in-Burmese-Amber%2B%25281%2529.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="735" data-original-width="1047" height="450" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-LXfZnXKYrl8/YXQ4g2yOZHI/AAAAAAAATYA/XGBmjO2R3uwosrN2Fxeqd2ua0dUp7fZDACLcBGAsYHQ/w640-h450/Cretapsara-athanata-Crab-in-Burmese-Amber%2B%25281%2529.jpg" title="Cretapsara athanata, a modern-looking eubrachyuran crab in Burmese amber. Image credit: Luque et al.," width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Cretapsara athanata, a modern-looking eubrachyuran crab in Burmese amber. Image credit: Luque </td></tr></tbody></table>Scientists have found the oldest aquatic animal preserved in amber -- and it's the most complete crab fossil ever discovered. Fossils trapped in amber provide a unique snapshot of the anatomy, biology, and ecology of extinct organisms. The most common fossils found in amber, which is formed from resin exuded from tree bark, are land-dwelling animals, mainly insects. But on very rare occasions scientists discover amber housing an aquatic organism. In a study published in Science Advances an international team of researchers describe the first crab from the Cretaceous dinosaur era preserved in amber. The study used micro CT to examine and describe Cretapsara athanata, the oldest modern-looking crab (approximately 100 million years old) and the most complete fossil crab ever discovered. It is rivalled in completeness by the mysterious Callichimaera perplexa, a very distant relative nicknamed the platypus of the crab world. Callichimaera's stunning preservation included soft tissues and delicate parts that rarely fossilize. Both Cretapsara and Callichimaera are new branches in the crab tree of life that lived during the Cretaceous Crab Revolution, a period when crabs diversified worldwide and the first modern groups originated while many others disappeared. True crabs, or Brachyura, are an iconic group of crustaceans whose remarkable diversity of forms, species richness, and economic importance have inspired celebrations and festivals worldwide. They've even earned a special role in the pantheon of social media. True crabs are found all around the world, from the depths of the oceans, to coral reefs, beaches, rivers, caves, and even in trees as true crabs are among the few animal groups that have conquered land and freshwater multiple times. <div style="margin: 0px auto; width: 100%;">
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</div> The crab fossil record extends back into the early Jurassic, more than 200 million years ago. Unfortunately, fossils of nonmarine crabs are sparse and largely restricted to bits and pieces of the animals carapace -- claws and legs found in sedimentary rocks. That is until now with the discovery of Cretapsara athanata. "The specimen is spectacular, it is one of a kind. It's absolutely complete and is not missing a single hair on the body, which is remarkable," said lead author Javier Luque, postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University. A group of scientists led by co-lead author Lida Xing, China University of Geosciences, Beijing, made micro CT scans of the fossil, which is housed in the Longyin Amber Museum in Yunnan, China. The scans created a full three-dimensional reconstruction of the exquisite preservation of the animal allowing Luque, Xing, and their team to see the complete body of the animal including delicate tissues, like the antennae and mouthparts lined with fine hairs. Shockingly they discovered the animal also had gills. "The more we studied the fossil, the more we realized that this animal was very special in many ways," said Luque. Cretapsara is remarkably modern-looking -- superficially resembling some shore crabs found today -- unlike most crabs during the mid-Cretaceous era which looked quite different from modern crabs. Yet, the animal was entombed in Cretaceous amber and the presence of well-developed gills indicated an aquatic to semi-aquatic animal. Aquatic animals are rarely preserved in tree resins that become amber. Crabs previously found in amber are by the handful and belong to a living group of tropical land and tree-dwelling crabs known as Sesarmidae from the Miocene (15 million years ago). How then, the researchers asked, did a 100 million year old aquatic animal become preserved in tree amber, which normally houses land-dwelling specimens? Gills allow aquatic animals to breathe in water. But crabs have successfully and independently conquered land, brackish water, and fresh water at least twelve times since the dinosaur era. In doing so their gills evolved to include lung-like tissue allowing them to breathe both in and out of the water. Cretapsara however, had no lung tissue, only well-developed gills indicating the animal was not completely land dwelling. "Now we were dealing with an animal that is likely not marine, but also not fully terrestrial," Luque said. "In the fossil record, nonmarine crabs evolved 50 million years ago, but this animal is twice that age." The team's phylogenetic studies show that carcinization (the evolution of true crab-looking forms) had actually already occurred in the most recent common ancestor shared by all modern crabs more than 100 million years ago. Cretapsara bridges the gap in the fossil record and confirms that crabs actually invaded land and fresh water during the dinosaur era, not during the mammal era, pushing the evolution of nonmarine crabs much further back in time. The researchers hypothesize that Cretapsara, measuring at five millimeters in leg span, was a juvenile crab of a freshwater to amphibious species. Or, that the animal is perhaps a semi-terrestrial juvenile crab migrating onto land from water as occurs to the iconic Christmas Island red crabs where land dwelling mother crabs release their babies into the ocean, which later swarm out of the water back onto land. They further hypothesize that like the crabs found in amber from the Miocene, Cretapsara could have been a tree climber. "These Miocene crabs are truly modern looking crabs and, as their extant relatives, they live in trees in little ponds of water," said Luque, "these arboreal crabs can get trapped in tree resin today, but would it explain why Cretapsara is preserved in amber?" Luque's research is centered on understanding why things evolve into crabs, and their evolution and diversification over time leading to the modern forms seen today. "This study is pushing the timing of origin of many of these groups back in time. Every fossil we discover challenges our preconceptions about the time and place of origin of several organisms, often making us look further back in time," Luque said. The study is part of a National Science Foundation funded project with Luque, Professor Javier Ortega-Hernández and postdoctoral researcher Joanna Wolfe, both in the Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University, and Professor Heather Bracken-Grissom, Florida International University. The researchers chose the name Cretapsara athanata, which means the immortal Cretaceous spirit of the clouds and waters, to honor the Cretaceous, during which this crab lived, and Apsara, a spirit of the clouds and waters in South and Southeast Asian mythology. The species name is based on "athanatos," immortal, referring to its lifelike preservation as if 'frozen in time' in the time capsule that is amber. Author's Statement: The studied fossil, deposited in the Longyin Amber Museum (LYAM), Yunnan Province, China, comes from a batch of commercial "raw" (dull, unpolished) amber pieces collected by local miners and sold to a vendor at an amber jewelry market in Myitkyina on May 12, 2015. The polished piece containing the fossil studied was acquired by LYAM from the vendor's mineral store in Tengchong, China, on 10 August 2015. We acknowledge the existence of a sociopolitical conflict in northern Myanmar and have limited our research to material predating the 2017 resumption of hostilities in the region. We hope that conducting research on specimens collected before the conflict and acknowledging the situation in the Kachin State will serve to raise awareness of the current conflict in Myanmar and the human cost behind it. The above story is based on <a href="https://oeb.harvard.edu/news/international-team-researchers-discover-first-dinosaur-era-crab-fully-preserved-amber" rel="nofollow" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; border-radius: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #004276; font-size: 14px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;" target="_blank">Materials</a><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #333333; display: inline; float: none; font-size: 14px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"> provided by <a href="https://oeb.harvard.edu/" rel="nofollow" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; border-radius: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #004276; font-size: 14px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;" target="_blank">Harvard University, Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology</a><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #333333; display: inline; float: none; font-size: 14px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">.

Tiny Crab Preserved in 100-million-year-old Amber Lived Among Dinosaurs

Cretapsara athanata, a modern-looking eubrachyuran crab in Burmese amber. Image credit: Luque Scientists have found the oldest aquatic anima...

Evidence of Ancient Life Was Discovered Inside a Ruby

Earth History, Geochemistry, Tectonic 7:05 PM

Evidence of Ancient Life Was Discovered Inside a Ruby

The ruby found to contain carbon-12 graphite. (University of Waterloo) A ruby that formed in Earth's crust 2.5 billion years ago encas...

Rare Eocene Grass Spikelet Found Preserved in Baltic Amber

amber, Fossils 5:07 PM

Rare Eocene Grass Spikelet Found Preserved in Baltic Amber

Side view of Eograminis balticus. Image credit: Poinar & Soreng Amber research by the Oregon State University College of Science has p...

Earth's Solid Inner Core May Be a Little Bit Mushy

earth, Tectonic 6:07 PM

<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-9V34ZLW2viU/YWw7mfRbg_I/AAAAAAAATXY/SrA6vj7Yasge8mXX-DVJlcj029Zm2GlmwCLcBGAsYHQ/s1100/Earth%2527s%2BSolid%2BInner%2BCore%2BMay%2BBe%2Ba%2BLittle%2BBit%2BMushy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="723" data-original-width="1100" height="420" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-9V34ZLW2viU/YWw7mfRbg_I/AAAAAAAATXY/SrA6vj7Yasge8mXX-DVJlcj029Zm2GlmwCLcBGAsYHQ/w640-h420/Earth%2527s%2BSolid%2BInner%2BCore%2BMay%2BBe%2Ba%2BLittle%2BBit%2BMushy.jpg" title="Earth's Solid Inner Core May Be a Little Bit Mushy" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Earth’s major layers consist of the thin rocky crust, the mantle (very hot but solid rock), the outer core (liquid iron), and the inner core (solid iron). Credit: Getty Images / Anuwat Meereewee </td></tr></tbody></table>  3,200 miles beneath Earth's surface lies the inner core, a ball-shaped mass of mostly iron that is responsible for Earth's magnetic field. In the 1950's, researchers suggested the inner core was solid, in contrast to the liquid metal region surrounding it. New research led by Rhett Butler, a geophysicist at the University of Hawai'i at Manoa School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology (SOEST), suggests that Earth's "solid" inner core is, in fact, endowed with a range of liquid, soft, and hard structures which vary across the top 150 miles of the inner core. No human, nor machine has been to this region. The depth, pressure and temperature make inner Earth inaccessible. So Butler, a researcher at SOEST's Hawai'i Institute of Geophysics and Planetology, and co-author Seiji Tsuboi, research scientist at the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology, relied on the only means available to probe the innermost Earth -- earthquake waves. <div style="width:100%;margin: 0px auto">
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</div> "Illuminated by earthquakes in the crust and upper mantle, and observed by seismic observatories at Earth's surface, seismology offers the only direct way to investigate the inner core and its processes," said Butler. As seismic waves move through various layers of Earth, their speed changes and they may reflect or refract depending on the minerals, temperature and density of that layer. In order to infer features of the inner core, Butler and Tsuboi utilized data from seismometers directly opposite of the location where an earthquake was generated. Using Japan's Earth Simulator supercomputer, they assessed five pairings to broadly cover the inner core region: Tonga-Algeria, Indonesia-Brazil, and three between Chile-China. "In stark contrast to the homogeneous, soft iron alloys considered in all Earth models of the inner core since the 1970's, our models suggest there are adjacent regions of hard, soft, and liquid or mushy iron alloys in the top 150 miles of the inner core," said Butler. "This puts new constraints upon the composition, thermal history, and evolution of Earth. The study of the inner core and discovery of its heterogeneous structure provide important new information about dynamics at the boundary between the inner and outer core, which impact the generation Earth's magnetic field. "Knowledge of this boundary condition from seismology may enable better, predictive models of the geomagnetic field which shields and protects life on our planet," said Butler. The researchers plan to model the inner core structure in finer detail using the Earth Simulator and compare how that structure compares with various characteristics of Earth's geomagnetic field.    The above story is based on <a href="https://www.soest.hawaii.edu/soestwp/announce/news/earths-solid-inner-core-may-contain-both-mushy-and-hard-iron-uh-research-finds/" rel="nofollow" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; border-radius: 0px !important; box-sizing: border-box; color: #004276; font-size: 14px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;" target="_blank">Materials</a><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #333333; display: inline !important; float: none; font-size: 14px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"> provided by <a href="https://www.hawaii.edu/" rel="nofollow" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; border-radius: 0px !important; box-sizing: border-box; color: #004276; font-size: 14px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;" target="_blank">University of Hawaii at Manoa</a><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #333333; display: inline !important; float: none; font-size: 14px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">. Original written by Marcie Grabowski.

Earth's Solid Inner Core May Be a Little Bit Mushy

The Earth’s major layers consist of the thin rocky crust, the mantle (very hot but solid rock), the outer core (liquid iron), and the inner ...

This 390-Million-Year-Old Trilobite Fossil Had a Bunch of Tiny Eyes Inside Its Eyes

evolution, Fossils 6:18 PM

<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-pAB2XvJ-Q84/YWGyULwZHiI/AAAAAAAATW4/GgTLuBO4SB0qAXQmttnLKn7CHEVOB5QswCLcBGAsYHQ/s1202/Phacops%2Bgeesops%252C%2Ba%2Btrilobite%2Bfrom%2Bthe%2BDevonian%2Bage.%2BThe%2Banimal%2527s%2Beyes%2Bconsist%2Bof%2B200%2Bsingle%2Blenses%2Beach%252C%2Bspanning%2Bsix%2Bsmall%2Bfacets%252C%2Bwhich%2Bagain%2Bform%2Bone%2Beye%2Beach..jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="1202" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-pAB2XvJ-Q84/YWGyULwZHiI/AAAAAAAATW4/GgTLuBO4SB0qAXQmttnLKn7CHEVOB5QswCLcBGAsYHQ/w640-h320/Phacops%2Bgeesops%252C%2Ba%2Btrilobite%2Bfrom%2Bthe%2BDevonian%2Bage.%2BThe%2Banimal%2527s%2Beyes%2Bconsist%2Bof%2B200%2Bsingle%2Blenses%2Beach%252C%2Bspanning%2Bsix%2Bsmall%2Bfacets%252C%2Bwhich%2Bagain%2Bform%2Bone%2Beye%2Beach..jpg" title="Phacops geesops, a trilobite from the Devonian age. The animal's eyes consist of 200 single lenses each, spanning six small facets, which again form one eye each." width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Phacops geesops, a trilobite from the Devonian age. The animal's eyes consist of 200 single lenses each, spanning six small facets, which again form one eye each. </td></tr></tbody></table> The humble trilobite, a helmet-headed creature that swam the seas hundreds of millions of years ago, was hiding an extraordinary secret — a "hyper-eye" never seen before in the animal kingdom. An international research team has found an eye system in trilobites of the suborder Phacopina from the Devonian (390 million years B.P.) that is unique in the animal kingdom: each of the about 200 lenses of a hyper-facet eye spans a group of six normal compound-eye-facets, forming a compound eye itself. In addition to the hyper-facetted eyes, the researchers, led by zoologist Dr. Brigitte Schoenemann at the University of Cologne’s Institute for Didactics of Biology, identified a structure that they believe to be a local neural network which directly processed the information from this special eye, and an optic nerve that carried information from the eye to the brain. The article, ‘A 390 million-year-old hyper-compound eye in Devonian phacopid trilobites,’ has been published in Scientific Reports. Trilobites are arthropods that once inhabited the world’s oceans and became extinct about 251 million years ago. The discovery was made when Schoenemann and her colleagues examined X-ray images taken by radiologist and amateur paleontologist Wilhelm Stürmer in the 1970s. <div style="margin: 0px auto; width: 100%;">
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</div> Stürmer had already believed the filaments under the trilobite eyes to be nerves, or a light guiding system. Schoenemann also found markings by Stürmer on the images designating the six subfacets. However, scientists at the time did not believe his interpretations. Now, however, the re-examination of the images and verification with modern computed tomography succeeded in confirming his conjectures. Most trilobites had compound eyes similar to those that are still found in insects today: a large number of hexagonal facets form the eye. There are usually eight photoreceptors under each facet. Comparable to the image of a computer screen, which is built up from individual pixels, an image is built up from the individual facets. In dragonflies, there are up to ten thousand individual facets. In order to produce a coherent image, the facets must be very close together and connected by neurons. However, in the trilobite suborder Phacopinae, the externally visible lenses of the compound eyes are much larger, up to 1 mm in diameter and more. In addition, they are set farther apart. Until now, scientists had not been able to explain this because space is wasted where light could be captured. Since a small cup sits under the lens, they assumed that at the bottom of the capsule was a small retina comparable to that of humans. Dr Schoenemann’s analysis of Wilhelm Stürmer's 40-year-old X-ray archive now suggests a different interpretation: a hyper-compound eye. Each phacopid had two eyes, one on the left and one on the right. ‘Each of these eyes consisted of about 200 lenses up to 1 mm in size,’ said Schoenemann. ‘Under each of these lenses, in turn, at least 6 facets are set up, each of which together again makes up a small compound eye. So we have about 200 compound eyes (one under each lens) in one eye.’ These sub-facets are arranged in either one ring or two rings. ‘Underneath sat a foam-like nest that was probably a small neural network to process the signals,’ the zoologist added. The filaments Stürmer found in fact did turn out to be nerves leading from the eyes to the trilobite’s brain. Further examination with modern computer tomography confirmed these structures. Wilhelm Stürmer was the head of the X-ray department at Siemens and an avid paleontologist. With a VW bus equipped as an X-ray station, he drove from quarry to quarry to X-ray fossils. Among other things, he discovered structures called filaments under the animals’ eyes, which he thought were fossils of soft tissues, especially optic nerves. ‘At that time, the consensus was that only bones and teeth, the hard parts of living things, could be seen in the fossils, but not the soft parts, such as intestines or nerves,’ Schoenemann explained. Stürmer’s heir gave the zoologist his archive. But the hobby-paleontologist had not only correctly identified the optic nerve, she notes: ‘On an X-ray negative, there was an arrow in red pen pointing to the structure of the six lower facets under a main lens. This probably indicated that Stürmer had already recognized the hyper-compound eye.’ At the time, however, scientists assumed that nerves did not fossilize, nor that light guides existed in natural optical system. Optical fibres were not discovered until the 1980s in the compound eyes of a deep-sea crab. The trilobite’s ‘hyper-eye’ may have been an evolutionary adaptation to life in low light conditions, Schoenemann believes. With its highly complex visual apparatus, it may have have been much more sensitive to light than a normal trilobite eye. ‘It is also possible that the individual components of the eye performed different functions, enabling, for example, contrast enhancement or the perception of different colours,’ the biologist said. So far, such an eye has only been found in the trilobite suborder Phacopinae: ‘This is unique in the animal kingdom,’ she concluded. In the course of evolution, this eye system was not continued, since the trilobites of the suborder Phacopinae died out at the end of the Devonian period 360 million years ago.  The above story is based on <a href="https://portal.uni-koeln.de/en/universitaet/aktuell/press-releases/single-news/primordial-hyper-eye-discovered" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">materials </a>provided by <a href="https://portal.uni-koeln.de/en/uoc-home" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">University of Cologne.</a>

This 390-Million-Year-Old Trilobite Fossil Had a Bunch of Tiny Eyes Inside Its Eyes

Phacops geesops, a trilobite from the Devonian age. The animal's eyes consist of 200 single lenses each, spanning six small facets, whic...

Fossil Footprints Reveal Humans Inhabited North America Over 21,000 Years Ago

Earth History, Fossils 6:05 PM

<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Nr3pMMAevZI/YVciVrqND0I/AAAAAAAATWc/uwk75BCpW4QrmZymhISy_XSaSOR4MFsYwCLcBGAsYHQ/s1200/Footprints-White-Sands-National-Park%2B%25281%2529.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1200" height="480" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Nr3pMMAevZI/YVciVrqND0I/AAAAAAAATWc/uwk75BCpW4QrmZymhISy_XSaSOR4MFsYwCLcBGAsYHQ/w640-h480/Footprints-White-Sands-National-Park%2B%25281%2529.jpg" title="Newly discovered fossil human footprints embedded in an ancient lakebed show that humans inhabited North America during the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM), occupying the region of what is now White Sands National Park in New Mexico, United States, between 23 and 21 thousand years ago." width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Footprints Found at White Sands National Park in New Mexico, Providing the Earliest Evidence of Human Activity in the Americas. Credit: Cornell University </td></tr></tbody></table>   Footprints found at White Sands National Park in New Mexico provide the earliest unequivocal evidence of human activity in the Americas and shed light on life over 23,000 years ago. Footprints found at White Sands National Park in New Mexico provide the earliest unequivocal evidence of human activity in the Americas and provide insight into life over 23,000 years ago. "For decades, archaeologists have debated when people first arrived in the Americas," said Holliday, a professor in the UArizona School of Anthropology and Department of Geosciences. "Few archaeologists see reliable evidence for sites older than about 16,000 years. Some think the arrival was later, no more than 13,000 years ago by makers of artifacts called Clovis points. The White Sands tracks provide a much earlier date. There are multiple layers of well-dated human tracks in streambeds where water flowed into an ancient lake. This was 10,000 years before Clovis people." Researchers Jeff Pigati and Kathleen Springer, with the U.S. Geological Survey, used radiocarbon dating of seed layers above and below the footprints to determine their age. The dates range in age and confirm human presence over at least two millennia, with the oldest tracks dating back 23,000 years. <div style="margin: 0px auto; width: 100%;">
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</div> This corresponds to the height of the last glacial cycle, during something known as the Last Glacial Maximum, and makes them the oldest known human footprints in the Americas. It was previously thought that humans entered America much later, after the melting of the North American ice sheets, which opened up migration routes. "Our dates on the seeds are tightly clustered and maintain stratigraphic order above and below multiple footprint horizons – this was a remarkable outcome," Springer said. The footprints tell an interesting tale of what life was like at this time. Judging by their size, the tracks were left mainly by teenagers and younger children, with the occasional adult. "The footprints left at White Sands give a picture of what was taking place, teenagers interacting with younger children and adults," said lead study author Matthew Bennett from Bournemouth University in England. "We can think of our ancestors as quite functional, hunting and surviving, but what we see here is also activity of play, and of different ages coming together. A true insight into these early people." Holliday and study co-author Brendan Fenerty, a UArizona doctoral student in the Department of Geosciences, documented basic geologic layering and dating in trenches on the White Sands Missile Range near the discovery site several years before the tracks were found. "We were interested in reconstructing the evolution of the landscape in the context of environmental changes and some younger archaeological sites in the area," Holliday said. "We had no idea what was buried nearby." Tracks of mammoth, giant ground sloth, dire wolves and birds are also all present at the White Sands site. "It is an important site because all of the trackways we've found there show an interaction of humans in the landscape alongside extinct animals, like mammoths and giant sloths," said study co-author Sally Reynolds of Bournemouth University. "We can see the co-existence between humans and animals on the site as a whole, and by being able to accurately date these footprints, we're building a greater picture of the landscape." The human tracks at White Sands were first discovered by David Bustos, resources manager at the park. "It is incredible to have the confirmation on the age of the human prints, and exciting but also sad to know that this is only a small portion of the 80,000 acres where the prints have been revealed bare and are also being rapidly lost to ongoing soil erosion," Bustos said.   The team also pioneered non-invasive geophysical techniques to help locate the site. Tommy Urban, from Cornell University, led this part of the work. "Detection and imaging with nondestructive technology has greatly expanded our capacity to study these remarkable footprints in their broader context," he said. Traditional archaeology relies on the discovery of bones and tools but can often be difficult to interpret. Human footprints provide unequivocal evidence of presence and also of behavior. "White Sands provides the first unequivocal evidence for human presence in the Americas during the Last Glacial Maximum," said study co-author Dan Odess of the National Park Service. "Not all archaeological sites contain such unequivocal evidence. One reason why this discovery is important is that it makes the idea that other purportedly ancient sites really are evidence for human presence that much more plausible, even if the evidence they contain is less unequivocal. This doesn't mean all of those sites are legitimate, but it means they cannot be dismissed out of hand."   The above story is based on <a href="https://news.arizona.edu/story/earliest-evidence-human-activity-found-americas" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">materials </a>provided by <a href="https://marcomm.arizona.edu/?_ga=2.197702892.211321583.1633099880-1920504190.1633099880" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">The University of Arizona.</a>

Fossil Footprints Reveal Humans Inhabited North America Over 21,000 Years Ago

Footprints Found at White Sands National Park in New Mexico, Providing the Earliest Evidence of Human Activity in the Americas. Credit: Corn...

Hawaii's Kilauea Volcano Erupting in 'Full Swing' - USGS

Hawaii, volcano 5:36 PM

Hawaii's Kilauea Volcano Erupting in 'Full Swing' - USGS

General view of lava surfacing on the Halema'uma'u crater of Kilauea volcano in Kilauea, Hawaii, U.S. September 29, 2021, in this st...

Carnotaurus Had Scaly Skin with No Feathers, Paleontologists Say

dinosaur, evolution 5:56 PM

Carnotaurus Had Scaly Skin with No Feathers, Paleontologists Say

Close-up of the skin, with ridges marked. (Hendrick and Bell, Cretaceous Research) Scientists have analysed the well-preserved skin of one...

480-Million-Year-Old Spores of Early Land Plants Found in Australia

evolution, Fossils 4:49 PM

480-Million-Year-Old Spores of Early Land Plants Found in Australia

Fossilized spores from the Early Ordivician deposits of Australia. Image credit: Strother & Foster Spores found in 480 million-year-ol...

Pink Halite

Mineralogy, Minerals 5:54 PM

Pink Halite

Giant 'Swimming Head' Creature Lived in Our Oceans 500 Million Years Ago

evolution, Fossils 6:45 PM

<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-AMOQeEq5_zw/YT9xdDgAkfI/AAAAAAAATUg/gMdJU7W3LfoU9bewgymXz5aedo-HivkbQCLcBGAsYHQ/s1260/08tb-predator-3-mobileMasterAt3x%2B%25281%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="902" data-original-width="1260" height="458" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-AMOQeEq5_zw/YT9xdDgAkfI/AAAAAAAATUg/gMdJU7W3LfoU9bewgymXz5aedo-HivkbQCLcBGAsYHQ/w640-h458/08tb-predator-3-mobileMasterAt3x%2B%25281%2529.jpg" title="Palaeontologists unearth one of the largest radiodonts of the Cambrian explosion" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Titanokorys gainesi carapace. Image credit: Jean-Bernard Caron, Royal Ontario Museum.</td></tr></tbody></table>   Paleontologists have described the largest Cambrian hurdiid radiodont known so far, named Titanokorys gainesi, from the Burgess Shale, British Columbia, Canada.Palaeontologists at the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) have uncovered the remains of a huge new fossil species belonging to an extinct animal group in half-a-billion-year-old Cambrian rocks from Kootenay National Park in the Canadian Rockies. The findings were announced on September 8, 2021, in a study published in Royal Society Open Science. Named Titanokorys gainesi, this new species is remarkable for its size. With an estimated total length of half a meter, Titanokorys was a giant compared to most animals that lived in the seas at that time, most of which barely reached the size of a pinky finger. "The sheer size of this animal is absolutely mind-boggling, this is one of the biggest animals from the Cambrian period ever found," says Jean-Bernard Caron, ROM's Richard M. Ivey Curator of Invertebrate Palaeontology. <div style="width:100%;margin: 0px auto">
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</div> Evolutionarily speaking, Titanokorys belongs to a group of primitive arthropods called radiodonts. The most iconic representative of this group is the streamlined predator Anomalocaris, which may itself have approached a metre in length. Like all radiodonts, Titanokorys had multifaceted eyes, a pineapple slice-shaped, tooth-lined mouth, a pair of spiny claws below its head to capture prey and a body with a series of flaps for swimming. Within this group, some species also possessed large, conspicuous head carapaces, with Titanokorys being one of the largest ever known. "Titanokorys is part of a subgroup of radiodonts, called hurdiids, characterized by an incredibly long head covered by a three-part carapace that took on myriad shapes. The head is so long relative to the body that these animals are really little more than swimming heads," added Joe Moysiuk, co-author of the study, and a ROM-based Ph.D. student in Ecology & Evolutionary Biology at the University of Toronto. Why some radiodonts evolved such a bewildering array of head carapace shapes and sizes is still poorly understood and was likely driven by a variety of factors, but the broad flattened carapace form in Titanokorys suggests this species was adapted to life near the seafloor. "These enigmatic animals certainly had a big impact on Cambrian seafloor ecosystems. Their limbs at the front looked like multiple stacked rakes and would have been very efficient at bringing anything they captured in their tiny spines towards the mouth. The huge dorsal carapace might have functioned like a plough," added Dr. Caron, who is also an Associate Professor in Ecology & Evolutionary Biology and Earth Sciences at the University of Toronto, and Moysiuk's Ph.D. advisor. All fossils in this study were collected around Marble Canyon in northern Kootenay National Park by successive ROM expeditions. Discovered less than a decade ago, this area has yielded a great variety of Burgess Shale animals dating back to the Cambrian period, including a smaller, more abundant relative of Titanokorys named Cambroraster falcatusin reference to its Millennium Falcon-shaped head carapace. According to the authors, the two species might have competed for similar bottom-dwelling prey. The Burgess Shale fossil sites are located within Yoho and Kootenay National Parks and are managed by Parks Canada. Parks Canada is proud to work with leading scientific researchers to expand knowledge and understanding of this key period of earth history and to share these sites with the world through award-winning guided hikes. The Burgess Shale was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1980 due to its outstanding universal value and is now part of the larger Canadian Rocky Mountain Parks World Heritage Site. The discovery of Titanokorys gainesi was profiled in the CBC's The Nature of Things episode "First Animals." These and other Burgess Shale specimens will be showcased in a new gallery at ROM, the Willner Madge Gallery, Dawn of Life, opening in December 2021. Major funding support for the research and fieldwork came from the Polk Milstein Family, ROM, the National Geographic Society (#9475-14 to JBC), the Swedish Research Council (to Michael Streng), the National Science Foundation (NSF-EAR-1556226, 1554897) and Pomona College (to Robert R. Gaines). This research is also supported by a National Science and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) Discovery grant to J.-B.C and a Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarship through the University of Toronto (Dept. of Ecology and Evolution) to J.M.  The above story is based on <a href="https://www.rom.on.ca/en/about-us/newsroom/press-releases/massive-new-animal-species-discovered-in-half-billion-year-old" rel="nofollow" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; border-radius: 0px !important; box-sizing: border-box; color: #004276; font-size: 14px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;" target="_blank">Materials</a><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #333333; display: inline !important; float: none; font-size: 14px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"> provided by <a href="https://www.rom.on.ca/" rel="nofollow" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; border-radius: 0px !important; box-sizing: border-box; color: #004276; font-size: 14px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;" target="_blank">Royal Ontario Museum</a><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #333333; display: inline !important; float: none; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">.

Giant 'Swimming Head' Creature Lived in Our Oceans 500 Million Years Ago

Titanokorys gainesi carapace. Image credit: Jean-Bernard Caron, Royal Ontario Museum. Paleontologists have described the largest Cambrian...

'Flying Dragon' First-ever Remains of Prehistoric Winged Dinosaur

dinosaur, Fossils 7:07 PM

'Flying Dragon' First-ever Remains of Prehistoric Winged Dinosaur

Fossils of the dinosaur were unearthed by a group of scientists in the Atacama Desert. The dinosaur fossil is preserved in a rare three-di...

Fossilized Insect Discovered Not in Amber, But in Opal

famous, Fossils, gemstones 5:28 PM

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-NG6NR7BQgsk/XHFzvLtIHdI/AAAAAAAAQzo/dy0mcr8DBvUgGGL6TTG0ivnZYJes4fECQCLcBGAs/s1600/Fossilized%2BInsect%2BDiscovered%2BNot%2Bin%2BAmber%252C%2BBut%2Bin%2BOpal.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="604" data-original-width="1024" height="376" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-NG6NR7BQgsk/XHFzvLtIHdI/AAAAAAAAQzo/dy0mcr8DBvUgGGL6TTG0ivnZYJes4fECQCLcBGAs/s640/Fossilized%2BInsect%2BDiscovered%2BNot%2Bin%2BAmber%252C%2BBut%2Bin%2BOpal.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Photo: <a href="https://www.instagram.com/velvetboxsociety/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">(Brian Berger/Instagram/@velvetboxsociety)</a></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
 
 
In a find unlike anything seen before, a piece of opal from the island of java in indonesia holds some remarkable cargo: a stunningly preserved insect that may be at least four to seven million years old. 
 
Previously, plenty of ancient insects have been found in amber, a gemstone made of fossilized tree resin. When animals became encased in the fresh resin, it entombs them rapidly enough to preserve the remains, often with exquisite detail. 
 
On a trip to Indonesia, gemologist Brian Berger purchased an opal that appeared to have an insect entombed inside. Insects trapped in amber are a common-enough sight, but in a slow-forming gemstone like opal? 
 
“Some researchers weren’t sure it was possible,” Berger told Gizmodo. “Now we know it’s possible. Is it likely? Extremely unlikely.” 
 
Berger had the stone analyzed by the Gemological Institute of America, which confirmed its authenticity. He published <a href="https://entomologytoday.org/2019/01/18/fossilized-insect-discovered-amber-opal/?fbclid=IwAR3tvq4p9ZxpCQ8qBNd29sRDsvWxLu_DpKqC9SgOwPgPvxuwFGVH8g3yBcQ" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">a blog in Entomology </a>about his finding and is looking for entomologists to further analyze it. 
 
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Plants produce a sticky substance called resin mostly as a means to protect themselves. Under the right circumstances, the chemical structures of these resins can change over time, fossilizing into amber—occasionally trapping and preserving an insect inside. 
 
This specimen probably started as a typical insect trapped in amber—but then it appears to have gone through a second process called opalization, where some of the amber turned into opal. Opals are essentially spheres of silicon dioxide with water combined into their chemistry. Organic specimens can turn into opal similar to the way fossilization turns bone into stone; paleontologists in Australia have recently found an opalized dinosaur fossil. 
 
At least, this is what Berger speculates happened. How the specimen formed remains unclear. 
 
One entomologist, Ryan McKellar, curator of invertebrate palaeontology at the Royal Saskatchewan Museum in Canada, told Gizmodo “it is a pretty neat find, and a bit puzzling.” Though commenting only on Berger’s blog post in Entomology Today, McKellar said it “definitely looks like an insect inclusion.” He noted that he’d seen a comparable specimen in Canada, where a piece of wood was partially embedded in resin and partially exposed to the surrounding environment. The amber preserved the wood, but silica replaced the organic matter outside the amber and turned it into petrified wood. 
 
McKellar thought that perhaps this specimen was formed by a similar process, and said he’d be interested in the age of the deposit where it was found. 
 
Meanwhile, well-known American entomologist George Poinar Jr. from Oregon State University remained cautious. He found the specimen “interesting,” but wanted to wait for an entomologist’s opinion before offering any further comment without examining the object himself. 
 
 
<a href="https://gizmodo.com/gemologist-finds-insect-trapped-in-opal-instead-of-ambe-1831966497" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Gizmodo</a></div>

Fossilized Insect Discovered Not in Amber, But in Opal

Photo: (Brian Berger/Instagram/@velvetboxsociety) In a find unlike anything seen before, a piece of opal from the island of java in i...

The Geology behind Kidney Stone Crystallization

Geology, Researches 6:56 PM

The Geology behind Kidney Stone Crystallization

Section of a kidney stone. Credit: Mayandi Sivaguru and Bruce Fouke Rather than crystallizing all at once, kidney stones dissolve and re-...

Some Rare Diamonds Form Out of The Remains of Once-Living Creatures

Diamonds, Tectonic 5:12 PM

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-TVMInzaw74w/YSzmh609hAI/AAAAAAAATTM/C17VFYp4mKoQW9M5Sr4-3KwPn-kX2bmEgCLcBGAsYHQ/s1180/Some%2BRare%2BDiamonds%2BForm%2BOut%2Bof%2BThe%2BRemains%2Bof%2BOnce-Living%2BCreatures%2B%25281%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="708" data-original-width="1180" height="384" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-TVMInzaw74w/YSzmh609hAI/AAAAAAAATTM/C17VFYp4mKoQW9M5Sr4-3KwPn-kX2bmEgCLcBGAsYHQ/w640-h384/Some%2BRare%2BDiamonds%2BForm%2BOut%2Bof%2BThe%2BRemains%2Bof%2BOnce-Living%2BCreatures%2B%25281%2529.jpg" title="Some Rare Diamonds Form Out of The Remains of Once-Living Creatures" width="640" /></a></div> Despite humanity's intense fascination with sparkly pieces of carbon, it seems there is still plenty to learn about how diamonds form deep within our planet. The Earth’s deepest diamonds are commonly made up of former living organisms that have effectively been recycled more than 400 kilometres below the surface, new Curtin research has discovered. The research, published in Nature’s Scientific Reports, found that both diamonds found in oceanic rocks and the so-called super-deep continental diamonds shared a common origin of recycled organic carbon deep within the Earth’s mantle. Lead author Dr Luc Doucet, from Curtin’s Earth Dynamics Research Group within the School of Earth and Planetary Sciences, said the findings offered a fascinating insight into the world’s most expensive gemstones. “Bringing new meaning to the old trash to treasure adage, this research discovered that the Earth’s engine actually turns organic carbon into diamonds many hundreds of kilometres below the surface,” Dr Doucet said. “Ballooning rocks from the Earth’s deeper mantle, called mantle plumes, then carry the diamonds back up to the Earth’s surface via volcanic eruptions for humans to enjoy as sought-after gemstones. “While recycling is becoming a modern-day necessity for our sustainable survival, we were particularly surprised to learn, through this research, that Mother Nature has been showing us how to recycle with style for billions of years.” <div style="width:100%;margin: 0px auto">
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</div> The three main types of natural diamonds include oceanic, super-deep continental and lithospheric diamonds, formed at different levels of the mantle with a varying mixture of organic and inorganic carbon. Co-lead author John Curtin Distinguished Professor Zheng-Xiang Li, the Head of the Earth Dynamics Research Group, said the research provided a model that explains the formation and locations of all three major types of diamonds. “This is the first time that all three major types of diamonds have been linked to mantle plumes, ballooning hot rocks driven by plate tectonics and the supercontinent cycle from deeper Earth,” Professor Li said. “This research not only helps to understand Earth’s carbon cycle, but also has the potential to unlock more secrets of the Earth’s dynamic history through tracking the past locations of mantle plumes and superplumes. This can be achieved by mapping out the distribution of both continental and oceanic diamonds.” However, Professor Li said it remained a mystery as to why diamonds formed in the so-called “mantle transition zone”, 400 to 600 kilometres deep, utilised recycled organic carbon only. “This might have something to do with the physical-chemical environment there”, Professor Li said. “It is not uncommon for a new scientific discovery to raise more questions that require further investigation.”    The above story is based on <a href="https://news.curtin.edu.au/media-releases/new-curtin-research-shows-mother-nature-recycles-trash-to-create-diamonds/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">materials </a>provided by <a href="https://www.curtin.edu.au/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Curtin University.</a>

Some Rare Diamonds Form Out of The Remains of Once-Living Creatures

Despite humanity's intense fascination with sparkly pieces of carbon, it seems there is still plenty to learn about how diamonds form de...

Nature Recycles Trash to Create Diamonds

Diamonds, Geology 8:56 PM

Nature Recycles Trash to Create Diamonds

Map showing oceanic diamond and oceanic mantle plume occurrences. The Earth’s deepest diamonds are commonly made up of former living org...

Paleontologists Find Frog-Legged Beetle Fossil in Colorado

Earth History, Fossils 6:29 PM

Paleontologists Find Frog-Legged Beetle Fossil in Colorado

The new frog-legged beetle species, Pulchritudo attenboroughi, or Attenborough’s Beauty, was identified by Frank Krell, Denver Museum of Nat...

‘Mammoth Weevil’ Found Preserved in Mid-Cretaceous Amber

amber, Fossils 5:29 PM

<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-vlSUYsjxboY/YSJ-mTgsrjI/AAAAAAAATSE/08rYEMoJB3UcVvTmSYiT54YMoJ9XG8R5ACLcBGAsYHQ/s1260/image_9923e-Rhamphophorus-legalovii%2B%25281%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="879" data-original-width="1260" height="446" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-vlSUYsjxboY/YSJ-mTgsrjI/AAAAAAAATSE/08rYEMoJB3UcVvTmSYiT54YMoJ9XG8R5ACLcBGAsYHQ/w640-h446/image_9923e-Rhamphophorus-legalovii%2B%25281%2529.jpg" title="A fossilized long-bodied weevil found in mid-Cretaceous amber from northern Myanmar represents a new tribe, genus and species and dates back some 100 million years." width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Rhamphophorus legalovii. Image credit: Poinar & Brown, doi: 10.1016/j.cretres.2021.104948. </td></tr></tbody></table>  A fossilized long-bodied weevil found in mid-Cretaceous amber from northern Myanmar represents a new tribe, genus and species and dates back some 100 million years. Oregon State University research has identified a 100-million-year-old weevil unlike any other known fossilized or living weevil. George Poinar Jr., an international expert in using plant and animal life forms preserved in amber to learn about the biology and ecology of the distant past, calls the male specimen a "mammoth weevil" because of its "monstrous trunk"—also known as the weevil's rostrum or beak. Poinar said Rhamphophorus legalovii, as the long-bodied weevil fossil is known scientifically, probably wielded its trunk as a weapon while in combat with other males over females. Encased in Burmese amber, the specimen represents a new tribe, genus and species. Rhamphophorus derives from a pair of Greek words meaning "curving beak" and "to bear," and legalovii honors Russian weevil specialist Andrei A. Legalov. <div style="width:100%;margin: 0px auto">
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</div> "Entomologists will be discussing the systematic placement of this fossil for years since it is so bizarre," said Poinar, who has a courtesy appointment in the OSU College of Science. Findings were published in Cretaceous Research. There are nearly 100,000 known species of weevils—small, plant-eating beetles known for their elongated snouts. Well-known North American species are the boll weevil that attacks cotton, the alfalfa weevil and the strawberry root weevil. Weevils with straight antennae are categorized as primitive weevils, and those whose antennae feature an elbow-like bend are known as true weevils; Rhamphophorus is a primitive weevil with an 11-segment antenna and Poinar placed it in the Nemonychidae family, whose members are known as "pine flower weevils." "The story of the family's ancient history is told by species in Mesozoic amber deposits, although no extinct or extant species with such elongated rostrums are known," he said. "The larvae and adults of many nemonychids eat pollen from developing male cones of pines and other conifers." The newly identified weevil genus and species belongs to the sub-family Cimberidinae, consisting of particularly long-nosed weevils whose physical characteristics are developed like highly specialized tools. Of the 70 known species of Cimberidinae, many are sexually dimorphic—males and females look quite different from one another. Thus the female of Rhamphophorus probably had a much shorter rostrum. The new weevil, which likely lived on the ground rather than in trees, is 5.5 millimeters long, almost half of which is head and rostrum. The amber in which it is preserved came from the Noije Bum 2001 Summit Site mine first excavated in Myanmar's Hukawng Valley in 2001. "Rhamphophorus had extended middle foot segments that might have increased its ability to grasp plant surfaces or better reach its foes during fights for females," Poinar said. "It would be interesting to know if females also had this feature." Injuries suffered by Rhamphophorus suggest it may have been doing battle with another male over a female just before it fell into the resin and was preserved. "Rhamphophorus shows many features unknown on living or extinct fossil weevils," Poinar said. "It shows how an adult beetle can become so specialized that even its family position can be questioned. Certainly lifestyle in conjunction with microhabitat influenced the evolutionary development of this weevil, which gives us an exciting glimpse of morphological diversity in mid-Cretaceous weevils."   The above story is based on <a href="https://today.oregonstate.edu/news/ancient-newly-identified-%E2%80%98mammoth-weevil%E2%80%99-used-huge-%E2%80%98trunk%E2%80%99-fight-mates" rel="nofollow" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; border-radius: 0px !important; box-sizing: border-box; color: #004276; font-size: 14px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;" target="_blank">Materials</a><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #333333; display: inline !important; float: none; font-size: 14px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"> provided by <a href="http://www.osu.edu/" rel="nofollow" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; border-radius: 0px !important; box-sizing: border-box; color: #004276; font-size: 14px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;" target="_blank">Oregon State University</a><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #333333; display: inline !important; float: none; font-size: 14px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">. Original written by Steve Lundeberg.

‘Mammoth Weevil’ Found Preserved in Mid-Cretaceous Amber

Rhamphophorus legalovii. Image credit: Poinar & Brown, doi: 10.1016/j.cretres.2021.104948. A fossilized long-bodied weevil found in mi...

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