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Research in the news: A 520 million-year-old food plan

By Guest PostJuly 28, 2014Nature, Sciencebiomass cookstoves, derek briggs, deutsch, field settings, horseshoe crabs, kaernten, katharina prochazka, million year old, paleontologist, rural malawi, slowenisch, spiders, yale university, zellulaeren automaten

Anyone who’s read a children’s menu at a restaurant knows that kids and adults tend to like different foods. New research suggests at least one animal species had the same arrangement half a billion years ago.

It seems the earliest ancestors of spiders and horseshoe crabs, called chelicerates, had separate ecological niches for adults and larvae. They ate different foods, in other words, and did not compete for the same prey. This approach has been seen in many modern animal species, but never in one this old. (more…)

Extinct ‘Mega Claw’ Creature Had Spider-Like Brain

By Guest PostOctober 20, 2013Science3d feature, ancestors of chelicerates, ancestors of crustaceans, chengjiang formation, complete nervous system, computed tomography, crustaceans, ct, ct scan, earliest known, elbow joint, extinct, extinct genus alalcomenaeus, fossilization, fossilized remains, fuxianhuia protensa, ganglia, gengo tanaka, greg edgecombe, horseshoe crabs, kunming, large claws, london, long nerves, lower cambrian, marine arthropods, mega claw creature, megacheirans, millipedes, natural history museum, nerve cells, neuroanatomical feature, nicholas strausfeld, relational tree, scorpions, southwest china, spider like brain, spiders, technique, university of arizona, xianguang hou, xray photograph

UA Regents’ Professor Nicholas Strausfeld and an international team of researchers have discovered the earliest known complete nervous system exquisitely preserved in the fossilized remains of a never-before described creature that crawled or swam in the ocean 520 million years ago.

A team of researchers led by University of Arizona Regents’ Professor Nick Strausfeld and London Natural History Museum’s Greg Edgecombe have discovered the earliest known complete nervous system, exquisitely preserved in the fossilized remains of a never-before described creature that crawled or swam in the ocean 520 million years ago.

The find suggests that the ancestors of chelicerates – spiders, scorpions and their kin – branched off from the family tree of other arthropods – including insects, crustaceans and millipedes – more than half a billion years ago. (more…)

Replacing the Blue Bloods

By Guest PostMay 24, 2011Sciencebacterial endotoxin, bacterial infections, biological nature, endotoxin, endotoxin contamination, horseshoe crabs, lal, limulus amoebocyte lysate, liquid crystals, mary galvin, national science foundation, nick abbott, non lethal method, ordering, poisons, university of wisconsin

*Liquid crystal droplets could replace horseshoe crab blood in common endotoxin test*

The Food and Drug Administration requires every drug they certify to be tested for certain poisons that damage patient health. The current gold standard for this is the limulus amoebocyte lysate (LAL) assay that involves using the blood of horseshoe crabs, which strangely enough is blue, to test for endotoxin, a substance commonly associated with many symptoms caused by bacterial infections.

But researchers at the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison have found what may be a more effective way to test for endotoxin that involves liquid crystals, the same material used to make some flat screen computer monitors and televisions. (more…)

Unexpected Exoskeleton Remnants Found in Paleozoic Fossils

By Guest PostFebruary 9, 2011Sciencearthropods, canada, cenozoic fossils, chitin protein complex, fossils, george cody, horseshoe crabs, low energy x rays, mesozoic fossils, molecular signature, ontario, organic fossil record, paleozoic era, partial bacterial degradation, polysaccharide, protein

Washington, D.C.— Surprising new research shows that, contrary to conventional belief, remains of chitin-protein complex—structural materials containing protein and polysaccharide—are present in abundance in fossils of arthropods from the Paleozoic era. Previously the oldest molecular signature of chitin-protein complex was discovered in 25 million year old Cenozoic fossils and remnants of structural protein have also been discovered in 80 million-year-old Mesozoic fossils. Carnegie’s George Cody and an international team of scientists discovered relicts of protein-chitin complex in fossils of arthropods from the Paleozoic era. Their findings, published online by Geology, could have major implications for our understanding of the organic fossil record. (more…)

Tag Archives: horseshoe crabs

Research in the news: A 520 million-year-old food plan

Extinct ‘Mega Claw’ Creature Had Spider-Like Brain

Replacing the Blue Bloods

Unexpected Exoskeleton Remnants Found in Paleozoic Fossils