When it comes to marine fossils, scientists often study the residues of hard creatures such as ammonites and trilobites. These organisms focus easily, leaving detailed prints in stones that help researchers understand life such as the oceans of millions of millions of years ago.
However, not all sea creatures are focusing so easy. Animals such as jellyfish and teachers are rarely preserved, making their ancient history more difficult to learn. That is why the discovery of the 1982 squid fossils aged 165 million in France still delights scientists today.
In a The latest study of fossilsScientists use X-ray imaging to reveal new details that challenge previous ideas about prehistoric marine life and raised new questions about today’s teacher’s evolution.
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Scientists were shocked after scanning a 165 million -year -old Gurita fossil
The scenery is close to the tentacles and the gurita inhaler.
In 2016, scientists conducted a study on 165 million year fossil squid known as Proteroctopus Using a technique called Synchrotron x-ray microtomography. This non-damaging method of imaging produces a high resolution 3D scan, allowing researchers to examine internal features without damaging specimens. The scan gives details that change many old ideas about the early cephalopod, a group of sea animals that are said to look like a real alien creature.
A shocking discovery is Proteroctopus Has two rows of inhalers outside his arm and the axis nerve inside each arm. In modern gurita, Inhaler serves various purposesIncludes responding to stimulation, grasping, anchoring, as well as feeling.
Similarly, axis Connect to the brain and help the teacher feel and move each arm. Previously, scientists believed that only modern species had this structure. However, the discovery of inhaler and axis nerves in Proteroctopus It shows that the features are present much earlier than they think.
Scan also reveals that Proteroctopus There is no ink pouch, the defense mechanism found in the Jurassic era and cephalopods today. Instead, it has a small pair of fins, may be used for swimming.
Lastly, scientists found the scan Proteroctopus have a swordOr the inner shell, suggests that the animal may be more mixed between the squid and the teacher.
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How does this finding change what scientists say about the evolution of squid
Octopus (Octopus Vulgaris Cuvier, 1797)
For years, scientists believe that Gurita as we know today did not appear until later in the evolutionary timeline. 2016 analysis on Proteroctopus Helps explain this hypothesis.
The combination of fossil features, such as double -sided, eight arms, and axis nerves, shows that some of the features related to today’s teacher are being developed much earlier than previously thought. In the same veins, scientists discover many evolutionary differences between Proteroctopus and his modern friends.
Although initially believed to be an early squid, scientists are classified Proteroctopus As an early member of the vampyropoda group, which includes gurita and vampires, due to the presence of gladius.
This finding raises new questions about the close relationship between two soft sea species. However, this study recommends taking a classification with a salt because of the poor preservation of gladius in Proteroctopus.
Fossils also challenge the belief that ink pouches are important to survive 165 million years ago. Presence of two fins rather than this pouch Proteroctopus More dependent on agility than ink clouds to escape predators, unlike slow gurita, below residence, part of it surprisingly toxic.
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Why is squid fossils so rare?
Gurita has to die very much a particular environmentLow in oxygen, uninterrupted, and rich in fine sediment, for fossilization even possible. Although certain parts of the ocean meet these conditions, most are oxygen rich. In fact, the country’s ocean and atmosphere administration (NOAA) reported that around 50% Earth’s oxygen comes from the ocean. This oxygen accelerates damage and attracts fraudsters, making fossilization difficult.
In addition, the gurita is completely soft. Unlike ancient cephalopod, ammon and belemnit, gurita had no shells or hard parts that focused easily. To be kept, their bodies need to be buried quickly before they begin to decompose.
Surprisingly, studies displayed in Video pbs eons On YouTube it may explain why scientists sometimes find Fossil Gurita. During this study, the researchers monitored how the squid and the dead were declining in the laboratory. Although the squid is quickly decomposed, the teacher remains a bit intact.
Most importantly, the squid body produces an acidic side product with a pH below 6.38, which is the threshold needed for soft tissue fossilization through a process called phosphatization. This process does not occur in the squid, which is why gurita fossils are slightly more likely to form when the condition is optimal.
Lucky for scientists, 165 million -year -old squid fossils, Proteroctopus, formed under proper circumstances. But it makes you wonder -how many ancient cephalopods have disappeared without a trace.