WFS

Formation of sedimentary layers of white clay, Tamilnadu, India

Fossil site for wood fossils, Tamilnadu, India

Fossil site in Kerala, India

Fossil wood park maintained by geological survey of India at Tamilnadu

Cretaceous fossil sites india

Fossils in rack:-Cyad

Fossils in rack:-echiniderms

Fossils in rack:-Rastellum sp

Pre-historic seabed, Cretaceous period

Tyrannosaur Vs Tyrannosaur ?

November 3rd, 2015

Riffin

A nasty little 66-million-year-old family secret has been leaked by a recently unearthed tyrannosaur bone. The bone has peculiar teeth marks that strongly suggest it was gnawed by another tyrannosaur. The find could be some of the best evidence yet that tyrannosaurs were not shy about eating their own kind.

“We were out in Wyoming digging up dinosaurs in the Lance Formation,” said paleontologist Matthew McLain of Loma Linda University in California. “Someone found a tyrannosaur bone that was broken at both ends. It was covered in grooves. They were very deep grooves.”

This is a recently unearthed tyrannosaur bone with peculiar teeth marks that strongly suggest it was gnawed by another tyrannosaur. Credit: Photos by Matthew McLain.

The grooves were clearly those of an animal pulling the flesh off the bone — pulling in a direction perpendicular to the bone, in the same way humans eat a piece of fried chicken. But one groove stood out. It was located at the larger end of the bone and contained smaller parallel grooves caused by the diner’s head turning, so that the serrated edges of its teeth dragged across the bone.

Serrated teeth rule out crocodiles and point directly to a theropod dinosaur like T. rex. The fact that the only large theropods found in the Lance Formation are two tyrannosaurs —Tyrannosaurus rex or Nanotyrannus lancensis — eliminates all interpretations but cannibalism, explained McLain, who will be presenting the discovery on 1 Nov. at the annual meeting of the Geological Society of America in Baltimore.

“This has to be a tyrannosaur,” said McLain. “There’s just nothing else that has such big teeth.”

The direction of the grooves is consistent with getting flesh from bones off an animal that was quite dead at the time. The bones don’t reveal whether the cannibal was scavenging or was also the killer of the tyrannosaur.

“Exactly who did the eating that day, in the Late Cretaceous, could still be sorted out by the same grooves,” McLain said.

The serration grooves are a valuable clue to the size of the animal who owned the teeth. Previous work using Komodo dragon teeth has demonstrated the relationship between serration sizes and the size of the animal. This approach has been used on tyrannosaurs, and McLain thinks it will work in this case, too.

“It only works if you know what species it is,” he said. “And since tyrannosauruses are the only large predators in these formations, it’s pretty straightforward.”

Even without knowing the size of the eater, it may be easy to say which species of tyrannosaur was eating, because, according to McLain, many paleontologists believe Nanotyrannus were really juvenile T. rex.

Citation:Geological Society of America. “It’s a Tyrannosaur-eat-Tyrannosaur world.” ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 29 October 2015. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/10/151029134652.htm>.

Key: WFS,Riffin T Sajeev,Russel T Sajeev, World Fossil Society

Ornithomimus dinosaur fossil with preserved tail feathers

November 2nd, 2015

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An undergraduate University of Alberta paleontology student has discovered an Ornithomimus dinosaur with preserved tail feathers and soft tissue. The discovery is shedding light on the convergent evolution of these dinosaurs with ostriches and emus relating to thermoregulation and is also tightening the linkages between dinosaurs and modern birds.

“We now know what the plumage looked like on the tail, and that from the mid-femur down, it had bare skin,” says Aaron van der Reest. This is the first report of such preserved skin forming a web from the femoral shaft to the abdomen, never before seen in non-avian dinosaurs. “Ostriches use bare skin to thermoregulate. Because the plumage on this specimen is virtually identical to that of an ostrich, we can infer that Ornithomimus was likely doing the same thing, using feathered regions on their body to maintain body temperature. It would’ve looked a lot like an ostrich.” In fact, this group of animals–referred to as ornithomimids–is commonly referred to as “ostrich mimics.”

This is an illustration of Ornithomimus based on the findings of preserved tail feathers and soft tissue
Credit: Julius Csotonyi

Although the preserved feathers are extremely crushed due to sediment compaction, scanning electron microscopy reveals a three-dimensional keratin structure to the feathers on the tail and body. van der Reest made the initial discovery during his first year as an undergraduate student, supervised by Philip Currie, Canada’s leading palentologist.”It’s pretty remarkable. I don’t know if I’ve stopped smiling since.”

Predicting future adaptations to environmental changes

This new specimen–one of only three feathered Ornithomimus specimens in the world–is shedding light on the animal’s evolutionary adaptation to different environments. “We are getting the newest information on what these animals may have looked like, how they maintained body temperatures, and the stages of feather evolution.” van der Reest notes that the findings may be used to further understand why animals have adapted the way they have and to predict how animals will have to adapt in the future in order to survive environmental changes.

“This specimen also tightens the linkages between dinosaurs and birds, in particular with respect to theropods,” says Alex Wolfe, second author on the paper. “There are so many components of the morphology of this fossil as well as the chemistry of the feathers that are essentially indistinguishable from modern birds.”

The discovery may also alter future excavation techniques, explains van der Reest. “If we can better understand the processes behind the preservation of the feathers in this specimen, we can better predict whether other fossilized animals in the ground will have soft tissues, feathers, or skin impressions preserved.”

Citation: University of Alberta. “Preshistoric plumage patterns: Ornithomimus dinosaur with preserved tail feathers, skin tightens linkages between dinosaurs, birds.” ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 28 October 2015. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/10/151028130854.htm>. Key: WFS,Riffin T Sajeev,Russel T Sajeev,World Fossil Society

Baby Dinosaur Fossil Airlifted Out of New Mexico Desert

October 31st, 2015

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The National Guard recently airlifted a rare baby dinosaur fossil, estimated to be 70 million years old, out of “desert wilderness” in northwestern New Mexico, according to museum officials at the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science.

The baby fossil, which is nearly as big a rhinoceros, is of a Pentaceratops, “a five-horned terrestrial dino similar to a Triceratops,” according to Spencer Lucas, the museum’s chief scientist. Lucas added that in the plaster, the fossil weighed over a ton.

An artistic rendering of the Pentaceratops is pictured here.

“Baby dinos are so rare to find as fossils, and even more incredible is that this is the first baby fossil of a Pentaceratops ever discovered,” Lucas told ABC News today. “When I saw the helicopter carrying it, I was just thinking how this plant-eating dino that used to walk in a New Mexico jungle 70 million years ago is now in the air flying!”

An artistic rendering of the Pentaceratops is pictured here.

The baby Pentaceratops was first discovered during an excavation in 2011 by Amanda Cantrell, who is the museum’s geoscience collections manager and the only female professional paleontologist in the state, Lucas said.

“Basically, we spent a month out in the field, just hiking the outcrop, and one day, I went really far, and I stumbled upon some bones,” Cantrell told ABC affiliate KOAT. “You become familiar with what the bones look like, and I saw them from pretty far away and went up to investigate, and sure enough, I saw the skull first.”She added that she’s “really anxious to see it back in the lab and find out “how these animals grow.”

Key: WFS,Riffin T Sajeev,Russel T Sajeev,Baby Dinosaur ,World Fossil Society

The fiery world before dinosaurs

October 29th, 2015

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Scientists from the Department of Earth Sciences at Royal Holloway, University of London together with colleagues from the USA, Russia and China, have discovered that forest fires across the globe were more common between 300 and 250 million years ago than they are today. This is thought to be due to higher level of oxygen in the atmosphere at that time.

The study which was published in the journal Frontiers in Plant Science, found that peats that were to become coal contained high levels of charcoal that could only be explained by the high levels of fire activity.

At higher levels of p(O2), increased fire activity would have rendered vegetation with high moisture contents more susceptible to ignition and would have facilitated continued combustion.Credit: © Lukas Gojda / Fotolia

The team used the data from charcoal in coal to propose that the development of fire systems through this interval was controlled predominantly by the elevated atmospheric oxygen concentration (p(O₂)) that mass balance models predict prevailed. At higher levels of p(O₂), increased fire activity would have rendered vegetation with high moisture contents more susceptible to ignition and would have facilitated continued combustion.

In the study they examine the environmental and ecological factors that would have impacted fire activity and conclude that of these factors p(O₂) played the largest role in promoting fires in Late Paleozoic peat-forming environments and, by inference, ecosystems generally, when compared with their prevalence in the modern world.

Professor Andrew Scott, one of the lead authors, said: “High oxygen levels in the atmosphere at this time has been proposed for some time and may be why there were giant insects and arthropods at this time but our research indicates that there was a significant impact on the prevalence and scale of wildfires across the globe and this would have affected not only the ecology of the plants and animals but also their evolution.”

Professor Scott and his colleagues and students at Royal Holloway have pioneered the study of fire in Earth’s deep past. Professor Scott, added: “We have been able to show that wildfire was an important element in Earth System many hundreds of millions of years before the arrival of humans.”

Citation:University of Royal Holloway London. “The fiery world before dinosaurs: New research reveals fires were more common 300 million years ago than today.” ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 26 October 2015. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/10/151026093211.htm>.

Key: WFS,Riffin T Sajeev,Russel T Sajeev, World Fossil Society

Ecosystems of the Pleistocene epoch

October 28th, 2015

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For years, evolutionary biologists have wondered how ecosystems during the Pleistocene epoch survived despite the presence of many species of huge, hungry herbivores, such as mammoths, mastodons and giant ground sloths. Observations on modern elephants suggest that large concentrations of those animals could have essentially destroyed the environment, but that wasn’t the case.

Now life scientists from UCLA and other universities in the U.S. and England argue that the ecosystem was effectively saved by predatory animals that helped keep the population of large herbivores in check. Their findings, reported this week in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, show that intense, violent attacks by packs of some of the world’s largest carnivores — including lions much larger than those of today and sabertooth cats — went a long way toward shaping ecosystems during the Pleistocene epoch.

Violent attacks by carnivores are illustrated.Credit: Painting by Mauricio Anton

The research could have implications for animal conservation efforts today. The paper notes that many of today’s endangered species evolved during or before the Pleistocene epoch, and under very different conditions from today’s.

“Recreating these [Pleistocene] communities is not possible, but their record of success compels us to maintain the diversity we have and rebuild it where feasible,” the researchers write.

Led by Blaire Van Valkenburgh, a UCLA evolutionary biologist, the researchers found that, because of their larger size, the ancient carnivores were very capable of killing young mammoths, mastodons and other species, which prevented those animals from destroying ecosystems in the Pleistocene, which ended about 11,700 years ago. The paper suggests that the extinction of the largest of the “hyper-carnivores” (such as lions, sabertooth cats and hyenas) during the late Pleistocene almost certainly was caused by the disappearance of their preferred prey, including young mega-herbivores (the mammoths, mastodons and giant ground sloths).

“Based on observations of living mega-herbivores, such as elephants, rhinos, giraffes and hippos, scientists have generally thought that these species were largely immune to predation, mainly because of their large size as adults and strong maternal protection of very young offspring,” said Van Valkenburgh, who holds an appointment in the UCLA College’s department of ecology and evolutionary biology.

“Data on modern lion kills of elephants indicates that larger prides are more successful and we argue that Pleistocene carnivore species probably formed larger prides and packs than are typically observed today — making it easier for them to attack and kill fairly large juveniles and young adult mega-herbivores.”

The scientists used several different techniques and data sources to estimate information about the Pleistocene animals. Among them:

Examining fossils of their teeth and applying the ratio of tooth size to body mass of today’s animals. (This led the researchers to estimate that the extinct species were between 50 and 100 percent larger than today’s tigers, African lions and spotted hyenas.)
Synthesizing data on the relationship between the age and shoulder height of the extinct animals versus shoulder height and body mass of today’s elephants.
Analyzing data on 50,000 instances of kills in the wild to estimate the typical and maximum sizes of the prey of Pleistocene carnivores.

Many scientists had thought that the populations of mammoths, mastodons and giant ground sloths were limited through evolution by changes in reproductive timing in response to shortages in resources like food and water.

Today’s large predators benefit their ecosystems in part by providing carcasses that feed an array of smaller species. The same was true during the Pleistocene, when keeping mega-herbivore populations in check meant that there was more vegetation for smaller mammals and birds. The predators might even have had indirect effects on river ecosystems, because the banks of the rivers were not being denuded by mega-herbivores and less likely to erode.

The study’s co-authors are Matthew Hayward of Bangor University College of Natural Sciences in England, William Ripple of Oregon State University, Carlo Meloro of Liverpool John Moores University in England and V. Louise Roth of Duke University.

Citation:University of California – Los Angeles. “Large, violent animal packs shaped the ecosystems of the Pleistocene epoch: Wide variety of data used to reconstruct an ancient era.” ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 26 October 2015. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/10/151026171412.htm>.

Key: WFS,Riffin T Sajeev,Russel T Sajeev,World Fossil Society

Life of Maiasaura

October 26th, 2015

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Research published in the journal Paleobiology is showing more about the life history of Maiasaura peeblesorum than any other known dinosaur.Credit: Courtesy Holly Woodward

Fossil bone microanalyses reveal the ontogenetic histories of extinct tetrapods, but incomplete fossil records often result in small sample sets lacking statistical strength. In contrast, a histological sample of 50 tibiae of the hadrosaurid dinosaur Maiasaura peeblesorum allows predictions of annual growth and ecological interpretations based on more histologic data than any previous large sample study. Tibia length correlates well (R²>0.9) with diaphyseal circumference, cortical area, and bone wall thickness, thereby allowing longitudinal predictions of annual body size increases based on growth mark circumference measurements. With an avian level apposition rate of 86.4 μm/day, Maiasaura achieved over half of asymptotic tibia diaphyseal circumference within its first year. Mortality rate for the first year was 89.9% but a seven year period of peak performance followed, when survivorship (mean mortality rate=12.7%) was highest. During the third year of life, Maiasaura attained 36% (x=1260 kg) of asymptotic body mass, growth rate was decelerating (18.2 μm/day), cortical vascular orientation changed, and mortality rate briefly increased. These transitions may indicate onset of sexual maturity and corresponding reallocation of resources to reproduction. Skeletal maturity and senescence occurred after 8 years, at which point the mean mortality rate increased to 44.4%. Compared with Alligator, an extant relative, Maiasaura exhibits rapid cortical increase early in ontogeny, while Alligator cortical growth is much lower and protracted throughout ontogeny. Our life history synthesis of Maiasaura utilizes the largest histological sample size for any extinct tetrapod species thus far, demonstrating how large sample microanalyses strengthen paleobiological interpretations.

Citation: Holly N. Woodward, Elizabeth A. Freedman Fowler, James O. Farlow and John R. Horner (2015). Maiasaura, a model organism for extinct vertebrate population biology: a large sample statistical assessment of growth dynamics and survivorship. Paleobiology, 41, pp 503-527. doi:10.1017/pab.2015.19.

Key: WFS,Riffin T Sajeev,Russel T Sajeev,World Fossil Society

Mass extinction led to many new species of bony fish

October 24th, 2015

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With over 30,000 species worldwide, the ray fins are currently the largest group of fish. These bony fish were not always as numerous, however. Losses of other fish species, such as cartilaginous fish, helped them to spread successfully. As paleontologists from the University of Zurich together with international researchers reveal, a series of serious extinction events between 300 to 200 million years ago played a central role in the development of today’s fish fauna.

Cartilaginous fishes were very diverse during the Permian period. However, after severe losses among cartilaginous fishes during the Middle Permian extinction, bony fishes experienced a massive diversification in the subsequent Trias period. (Image: Nathalie Huber)

Today, ray-finned fish, which belong to the bony fish, are by far the most biodiverse fish group in both salt- and freshwater. Their spectacular variety of forms ranges from eels, tuna, flounders and angler fish all the way to seahorses. With around 1,100 species, the second most biodiverse group is the cartilaginous fish, which are almost exclusively marine and include sharks, rays and chimaeras. Exactly why bony fish managed to prevail in different habitats is the subject of debate: Do they have a better body plan, which is suited to more ecological niches than that of the cartilaginous fish? Or are other factors involved in their successful distribution? Paleontologists from the University of Zurich now reveal that climate catastrophes in the past played a crucial role in the dominance of ray-finned fish today.

Cartilaginous fish greatly depleted by extinction events

The scientists studied the changes in biodiversity among cartilaginous and bony fish during the Permian and Triassic periods around 300 to 200 million years ago – an interval marked by several serious extinction events. They evaluated the global scientific literature on bony and cartilaginous fish from the last 200 years and collected data on diversity and body size, the latter providing an indication of the fish’s position in the food chains in the seas and freshwater.

Based on the data evaluated, the researchers demonstrate that cartilaginous fish, the most biodiverse fish group at the time, especially suffered heavily during an extinction event in the Middle Permian epoch while the Permian ray-finned fish escaped relatively unscathed. After an even bigger mass extinction close to the Permian-Triassic boundary, which wiped out 96 percent of all sea organisms, these bony fish diversified heavily. Of the ray-finned fish, the so-called Neopterygii (“new fins”) became particular biodiverse during the Triassic and, with over 30,000 species, today constitute the largest vertebrate group. Triassic Neopterygii primarily developed small species while the majority of the more basal ray-fins produced large predatory fish. Moreover, many bony fish developed morphological specializations in the Triassic, such as in the jaw apparatus, dentition or fins. This enabled new ways of locomotion, including gliding over the surface of the water, much like flying fish do today. Moreover, there is also evidence for viviparity in Triassic bony fish, for the first time ever.

Extinction events correlate with climate changes

Unlike bony fish, cartilaginous fish, which had already been heavily decimated by the end of the Permian, did not really recover. Many groups that were still biodiverse in the Permian disappeared completely or became extremely rare during the extinction events of the Permian and the Triassic. “Our results indicate that repeated extinction events played a key role in the development of today’s fish fauna,” explains Carlo Romano, a postdoc at the University of Zurich’s Paleontological Institute and Museum. Most of these severe crises are linked to massive volcanic activity, global climate changes and sea level lowstands.

Literature:

C. Romano, M. B. Koot, I. Kogan, A. Brayard, A. V. Minikh, W. Brinkmann, H. Bucher, J. Kriwet, Permian-Triassic Osteichthyes (bony fishes). Diversity dynamics and body size evolution. Biological Reviews, November xx, 2014. S. 1-44. doi: 10.1111/brv.12161.

Key: WFS,Riffin T Sajeev, Russel T Sajeev,World Fossil Society

Arvinachelys goldeni: A pig nosed turtle fossil

October 22nd, 2015

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In the 250-million-year evolutionary history of turtles, scientists have seen nothing like the pig nose of a new species of extinct turtle discovered in Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument by a team from the Natural History Museum of Utah.

“It’s one of the weirdest turtles that ever lived,” said Joshua Lively, who described the new species today in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. “It really helps add to the story emerging from dinosaur research carried out at the Natural History Museum of Utah.”

Lively studied the fossil as part of his master’s thesis at the University of Utah. He is now a doctoral student at the University of Texas at Austin.

An artist’s depiction of the turtle Arvinachelys goldeni as it would have appeared in life 76 million years ago in southern Utah.Credit: Victor Leshyk

The extinct turtle was about 2 feet long from head to tail. Its streamlined shell was adapted for living in a riverine environment. When it was alive, 76 million years ago during the Cretaceous Period, Southern Utah looked more like present-day Louisiana. The climate was wet and hot, and the landscape was dominated by rivers, bayous and lowland flood plains.

It lived alongside tyrannosaurs, armored ankylosaurs, giant duck-billed dinosaurs such as Gryposaurus and Parasaurolophus, and other dinosaurs that left abundant fossil remains in the Upper Cretaceous Kaiparowits Formation of Southern Utah. But those fossil beds also hold the remains of many crocodilians, turtles, lizards and amphibians that don’t look much different from their modern relatives.

Unlike any turtle ever found, the broad snout of the newly discovered species has two bony nasal openings. All other turtles have just one external nasal opening in their skulls; the division between their nostrils is only fleshy.

Golden’s bacon turtle

The pig-nosed turtle’s scientific name, Arvinachelys goldeni, derives from arvina, a Latin word for pig fat or bacon¬, and chelys, Latin for tortoise. And goldeni honors Jerry Golden, a volunteer fossil preparator at the Natural History Museum of Utah, who prepared the new holotype specimen — and many others in the museum’s collections.

“Volunteers are involved in every aspect of what we do, from field work and digging up specimens to preparing them,” said Randall Irmis, curator of paleontology at the museum and associate professor at the University of Utah. “In 2014, volunteers provided 14,500 hours of work. It’s a massive contribution. We couldn’t do what we do without them. We really consider them key team members.”

Most ancient turtle species are represented by fossil remains that often consist of nothing more than an isolated skull or shell. And finds that associate skulls with shells are rare. The new specimen includes not only the skull and the shell, but also a nearly complete forelimb, partial hindlimbs, and vertebrae from the neck and tail of Arvinachelys.

Scientifically important

It’s important because it fills a gap in understanding the evolution of turtles. “With only isolated skulls or shells, we are unable to fully understand how different species of fossil turtles are related, and what roles they played in their ecosystems,” Irmis said.

During the time of Arvinachelys, western North America was a large island continent named Laramidia. A sea stretching from the Arctic to the Gulf of Mexico separated Laramidia from eastern North America.

During the Late Cretaceous Period, dinosaurs of southern Laramidia (southern Utah, New Mexico and Texas) seem to have diversified in isolation from their relatives in the northern part of the continent (Montana and Alberta). The apparent confinement of Arvinachelys and other species of turtles to southern Laramidia fits that same pattern.

It remains a mystery what kept northern and southern populations isolated from each other. The Earth’s climate was in a hothouse phase with high temperatures not varying as greatly from equator to the poles as they do today. “The assumption has always been that organisms would be able to range over broad areas,” Lively said.

A combination of rising sea levels and persistent changes in the climate might have created barriers to dispersal during the Cretaceous Period. Lively said that understanding how ancient animals coped with a changing climate will help scientists understand how modern animals and ecosystems are likely to respond to present day and future climate change.

The study was funded by the Bureau of Land Management, Geological Society of America, Grand Staircase-Escalante Partners, the Paleontological Society Kenneth & Annie Caster Award and University of California Museum of Paleontology Welles Research Fund. Fieldwork was conducted under permits issued by the Bureau of Land Management.

Source:University of Utah. “76-million-year-old extinct species of pig-snouted turtle unearthed in Utah.” ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 21 October 2015. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/10/151021104413.htm>.

KEY: WFS,Riffin T Sajeev,Russel T Sajeev,World Fossil Society

Spinolestes may be earliest mammal

October 19th, 2015

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A recently discovered fossil of a hedgehog-like creature may push back the date at which scientists believe mammals began to appear on Earth by more than 60 million years.The 125-million-year-old fossil, which was found in Spain, has what researchers say is the “earliest record of preserved mammalian hair structures and inner organs.”

The creature, which has been named Spinolestes xenarthrosus, is “remarkably intact” complete with guard hairs and hedgehog-like spines.The fossil also shows an external ear lobe as well as the tissue of internal organs, including the liver and lung.A team of researchers from the Autonomous University of Madrid, University of Bonn and the University of Chicago said the hair and spines are the “earliest-known examples in mammalian evolutionary history.”

Skeleton of the Cretaceous mammal Spinolestes with preserved fur shadows. The outer ear can be seen at the upper edge of the photo.

“Spinolestes is a spectacular find. It is stunning to see almost perfectly preserved skin and hair structures fossilized in microscopic detail in such an old fossil,” said study co-author Zhe-Xi Luo, professor of organismal biology and anatomy at the University of Chicago, in a statement. “This Cretaceous furball displays the entire structural diversity of modern mammalian skin and hairs.”

The fossil was found in an area of central Spain that was a lush wetland 125 million years ago. The site has been pored over by paleontologists for over 30 years, yielding hundreds of fossils.The fossilized Spinolestes was found in 2011.

Researchers said the animal was about 24 cm in length and weighed between 50 to 70 grams, making it roughly the size of a young rat. Its teeth and skeleton lead scientists to believe Spinolestes was a “ground dweller” that survived on a diet of bugs.

Spinolestes’ hair and skin were similar to modern mammals, researchers said, noting that they saw multiple hairs formed from the same skin pore. It also has tiny spines on its back.The specimen was so well preserved that scientists were even able to see that it suffered from a fungal skin infection still suffered by modern day mammals.

“Hairs and hair-related integumentary structures are fundamental to the livelihood of mammals, and this fossil shows that an ancestral, long-extinct lineage had grown these structures in exactly the same way that modern mammals do,” Luo said. “Spinolestes gives us a spectacular revelation about this central aspect of mammalian biology.”

A study about Spinolestes appeared in the journal Nature.

Source: Voice Of America

Key: WFS,Riffin T sajeev,Russel T sajeev, World Fossil Society

WFS Facts : Peanut Wood

October 18th, 2015

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A nice slab of peanut wood showing lots of “peanut” markings that were produced by the infilling of boreholes made by clams. This slab is about 12 inches in width and was cut from peanut wood mined in the Kennedy Ranges of Western Australia.

Peanut wood is a variety of petrified wood that is usually dark brown to black in color. It is recognized by its white-to-cream-color markings that are ovoid in shape and about the size of a peanut. It received its name from these peanut-size markings. It is a fossil gem with a very unusual history.

How Does Peanut Wood Form?

Much of the peanut wood being sold today began its life as a conifer tree on land in the area now known as Western Australia. When these trees died, rivers carried them into a shallow, salty epicontinental sea that covered much of what is now the Australian continent.
They arrived at the sea as a piece of driftwood. This was during the Cretaceous time period, when a species of marine clam that loved to eat wood lived in the Australian sea. The clam larvae were able to smell nearby wood and swim to it. When they arrived at a piece of driftwood, they would attach themselves to it and start eating. A tiny pair of valves soon developed on one end of their long body, and they used the sharp edges of their shell as a rasp. They shaved off tiny particles of wood – which they would promptly eat. In a few weeks they could excavate a deep tunnel into the soft, mushy wood.

Shipworms!

A few species of these wood-eating clams live in the oceans today. Sailors have cursed about them for hundreds of years as the enemy of wooden ships. Sailors began calling them “shipworms” because of their long bodies and their ability to tunnel into a ship much like a worm tunnels through an apple. In the 1700s, shipbuilders began lining the hulls of their ships with thin sheets of copper to protect them from the shipworm. Shipworms have been ruining ships, pilings, docks, retaining walls, and other wooden structures as long as people have been placing them in salt water.

How the Peanuts Form

Back to the Cretaceous seafloor where the waterlogged wood that has been heavily drilled by prehistoric shipworms is resting. Billions of tiny radiolarians (tiny plankton with siliceous shells) are living in the water above the wood. A river mouth is a great place for radiolarians to live because the river delivers a continuous supply of nutrients to the sea. When the radiolarians die, their tiny silicious shells sink to the bottom and accumulate as a white sediment known as radiolarian ooze.

Layer after layer of radiolarian ooze accumulated over the wood, entered the bore holes, and some of it dissolved to form a super-saturated silica solution. This dissolved silica precipitated in the cavities of the wood and replaced the woody tissues, converting the waterlogged wood into a fossil.
Today, if a piece of the wood is broken, the petrified wood is a brown-to-black color. Contrasting with the wood is the white radiolarian ooze that filled the boreholes. Since the boreholes are filled, they appear on the broken surface of the wood as white oval-shaped markings about the size and shape of a peanut. That is how the peanut wood obtained its distinctive appearance and its name.

The sediments that contained the peanut wood lithified into sedimentary rocks that are now known as the “Windalia Radiolarite.” The Windalia was eventually uplifted as part of Western Australia’s Kennedy Ranges, which are now above sea level. A few lapidaries found the peanut wood, tried cutting it and discovered that it is a gem material that can be used to make very colorful, interesting, and brightly polished cabochons.
Soon, peanut wood was being used to make clock faces, spheres, beads, and many other lapidary products. Small leftover pieces from these projects can be loaded into a rock tumbler and used to make tumbled stones. The gem material is very attractive, and its unique appearance immediately grabs attention.
It is surprising that an ancient waterlogged wood that was bored by ship worms is now a popular gem that is cut, worn, displayed, and talked about all over the world.

Courtesy and From: Geology.com