A team of researchers discovered a new species of arthropod, related to today’s spiders or scorpions, which dates back 450 million years and was perfectly preserved in a material similar to gold in the state of New York.
This type of preservation is due to the material in which it was found, iron pyrite, also known as ‘fool’s gold’.that was “filling” or occupying the different parts of the body of the dead animal and trapped in sediment to the point of giving the sensation that it was embalmed in gold.
the fossil was found at a site in upstate New York known as the ‘Beecher Trilobite Bed’in which there is a large representation of fossil organisms in perfect condition because the iron pyrite maintained the shape of their bodies after being buried in the sediment, giving rise to spectacular three-dimensional golden fossils.
The discovery was described Tuesday in the journal Current Biology, where the new species is named ‘Lomankus edgecombei’, in honor of Greg Edgecombe, a paleontologist at the Natural History Museum in London considered one of the world’s leading experts on arthropods.
“In addition to the beautiful and striking golden color, these fossils are spectacularly preserved, it seems that when the rock in which they are found was washed they would come to life and escape.“said one of the authors, Luke Parry, a researcher at the British University of Oxford.
The new fossil belongs to a group of arthropods called ‘megacheirans’, which are characterized by having a large leg or appendage in the front part of the body to capture their prey.
The researchers highlight that ‘megacheirans’ like Lomankus were very diverse during the Cambrian period (between 538 and 485 million years ago), but became extinct in the Ordovician period (between 485 and 443 million years ago).
HE Fossil offers valuable clues to better understand how arthropods evolved these frontal appendages to control their environment and capture prey, becoming what we now know as the antennae of insects and crustaceans, and the pincers and fangs of spiders and scorpions.
“Today, there are more species of arthropods than any other group of animals on Earth, and part of the key to their evolutionary success is their highly adaptable head and appendages,” Parry added.
While other megacheirans used their large first appendage to capture prey, in Lomankus the typical claws are much smaller.
This suggests that the animal used its frontal appendage to perceive its surroundings, rather than to capture prey, so its lifestyle would have been very different from that of its older relatives from the Cambrian period.
In fact, the fossil appears to have no eyes, so the frontal appendage would have been essential for searching for food in the dark, low-oxygen environment in which it lived.
Source: Observadora
