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Scientists have found two specimen of a 444 million - year - sometime " inside - out " fossil with well - preserved soft tissue , according to a new study . Unlike most fossils , the creature ’s sinew and bowel — but not its more durable shell — are preserved in ancient sediment that turned to gem .
The fossil , rule 250 miles ( 402 kilometer ) north of Cape Town in South Africa , is a young metal money of multisegmented arthropod that may have dwell in atomic number 8 - poor waters , according to the study , published March 26 in the journalPapers in Palaeontology .
A 444 million-year-old fossil specimen ofKeurbos susanaefrom South Africa.
Researchers name the young speciesKeurbos susanaeand dub the fossil " Sue " after its discoverer ’s mom .
" Sue is an inside - out , legless , brainless admiration , " lead authorSarah Gabbott , a paleontologist at the University of Leicester in the U.K. , suppose in astatement . " Remarkably , her interior are a mineralized fourth dimension - capsule : muscles , sinews , tendon and even guts all preserve in unimaginable detail . And yet her long-wearing carapace , leg and headspring are missing — lost to decay over 440 million years ago . "
The researcher found the fossils in the Soom Shale , a web site sleep together for give rise fossil with well - keep up soft tissue , more than 20 years ago . They had hop to determine additional specimen , but fossils of the species turn out to be quite rare . The silt , clay , and mud in which Sue was bear on were deposited on an ancient seafloor , beneath an sea low gear in oxygen but high in dissolved , acidic hydrogen sulfide — propose thatK. susanaemay have been accommodate for a depleted - oxygen environment .
Paleontologist Sarah Gabbott hammers a specimen in the field.
Sue dates back to the Late Ordovician mass extinction ( 443 million years ago ) , when dusty temperature and glacier advancement eliminated nearly 85 % of marine mintage .
researcher are still working to understand how soft tissues in fossil likeK. susanaeare preserved in the Soom Shale . Clay minerals may have played a role , as could calcium phosphate , a chemical compound normally found in fossilized muscles . On the other hand , the shells and exoskeleton of species preserve in Soom Shale likely break up in the acidic sea .
Because theK. susanaespecimen was fossilized inside out , scientists still are n’t indisputable of the specie ' evolutionary story or how it compares to other fossil from the same time period .
Sarah Gabbott in the Cederberg Mountains of South Africa, where the fossil was found.
" We are now certain she was a crude marine arthropod , but her accurate evolutionary human relationship remain frustratingly elusive , " Gabbott said in the financial statement . The fossil ’s segmented luggage compartment suggests it had limbs of some kind — but comparing Sue to sleep together dodo mintage would require a sample distribution with part of the exoskeleton keep up .
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Sarah Gabbott found the fossil of the ancient arthropod in the Cederberg Mountains.
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Recent quarry activity has buried the internet site where Gabbott and her fellow launch Sue , so it ’s improbable they ’ll find other examples of the same metal money with inviolate legs or a head , the team state .
" I ’d always hop to find new specimen , but it seems after 25 years of search this fossil is vanishingly rare — so I can flow on no longer , " Gabbott said . " Especially as latterly my mum said to me , ' Sarah , if you are going to name this fossil after me , you ’d better get on and do it before I am in the ground and fossilized myself ' . "
Gabbott jest that she make the dodo after her mom because she ’s a " well - preserved specimen . " But the dependable reason , she said , is that " my mum always said I should observe a vocation that makes me happy — whatever that may be . For me that is digging rocks , finding fogy and then endeavor to figure out how they lived what they tell us about ancient life and evolution on Earth . "
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