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Fossil of Ancient Marine Animal Reveals Softer Side

By Guest PostDecember 21, 2012Scienceanatomical features, ancient marine fossil, Britain, calcified concretions, crabs, crustacean, david j siveter, derek briggs, evolutionary history, fossil, fossil ostracods, lobsters, mark d sutton, ostracod, pauline avibella, sarah c joomun, shells, shrimps, silurian period, soft body parts, yale scientist

A Yale scientist and colleagues in Britain have found a highly unusual ancient marine fossil that retains soft body parts as well as its shell, including limbs, eyes, gills and alimentary system. The fossil represents a new species of ostracod, a tiny crustacean related to crabs, lobsters and shrimps.

“Fossil ostracods often provide evidence of the relative ages of the rocks in which they occur, but it is very difficult to determine their relationship to living forms because only the shell is normally preserved,” said Derek E. G. Briggs, director of Yale’s Peabody Museum of Natural History and a co-author of the research. “This 425-million-year-old new form is remarkable in preserving the limbs and other anatomical features as well.” (more…)

For UCLA Expert on Chumash Indians, Roughly Hewn Beads are Child’s Play

As the world’s leading authority on beads manufactured from shells by California’s Chumash Indians, UCLA archaeologist Jeanne Arnold was stumped by a series of anomalous artifacts excavated at former settlements on the Channel Islands.

Pierced with more than one hole, often at unconventional angles or too close to the edges, the oddly configured multi-hole beads differ considerably from the smooth, round, precisely drilled beauties that served as currency among the Chumash prior to the arrival of Europeans in Southern California. (more…)

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Fossil of Ancient Marine Animal Reveals Softer Side

For UCLA Expert on Chumash Indians, Roughly Hewn Beads are Child’s Play