Fossils / en Correcting the fossil record: Researchers say four-legged ‘snake’ is different ancient animal /news/correcting-fossil-record-researchers-say-four-legged-snake-different-ancient-animal <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">Correcting the fossil record: Researchers say four-legged ‘snake’ is different ancient animal</span> <div class="field field--name-field-featured-picture field--type-image field--label-hidden field__item"> <img loading="eager" srcset="/sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_370/public/2023-04/GettyImages-574901555-crop.jpeg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=eRZdpqE1 370w, /sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_740/public/2023-04/GettyImages-574901555-crop.jpeg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=LxlFxdIo 740w, /sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_1110/public/2023-04/GettyImages-574901555-crop.jpeg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=ppJpgHRt 1110w" sizes="(min-width:1200px) 1110px, (max-width: 1199px) 80vw, (max-width: 767px) 90vw, (max-width: 575px) 95vw" width="740" height="494" src="/sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_370/public/2023-04/GettyImages-574901555-crop.jpeg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=eRZdpqE1" alt="An Eastern Brown snake"> </div> <span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"><span>Christopher.Sorensen</span></span> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"><time datetime="2022-01-06T15:34:24-05:00" title="Thursday, January 6, 2022 - 15:34" class="datetime">Thu, 01/06/2022 - 15:34</time> </span> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-field-cutline-long field--type-text-long field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Cutline</div> <div class="field__item"><p>(Photo by kristianbell/Getty Images)</p> </div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-author-reporters field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/authors-reporters/kristy-strauss" hreflang="en">Kristy Strauss</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-topic field--type-entity-reference field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Topic</div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/topics/breaking-research" hreflang="en">Breaking Research</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-story-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/biology" hreflang="en">Biology</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/fossils" hreflang="en">Fossils</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/u-t-mississauga" hreflang="en">U of T Mississauga</a></div> </div> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p>It all started with a grand claim: scientists had discovered the first known four-legged snake fossil from Brazil. The specimen, named&nbsp;<em>Tetrapodophis amplectus</em>, was small – about the size of a pencil – with tiny limbs. It was considered a significant discovery that offered paleontologists a major clue into the transition from limbed lizards to limbless snakes.</p> <p>But the interpretation of this latest discovery didn’t sit well with ߲ݴý’s&nbsp;<strong>Robert Reisz</strong>, a professor of biology at U of T Mississauga,&nbsp;and his colleagues – so he and&nbsp;Michael Caldwell, a professor of biological sciences at the University of Alberta, went to study the fossil in person.</p> <p>“We came up with a much more plausible alternative explanation that this is not a snake, but a little lizard,” Reisz says.</p> <p>Reisz adds the way in which the fossil was first obtained raised red flags. Around the mid-20th&nbsp;century, Brazil had outlawed fossil exports – but this artifact was illegally exported and bought by a private collector.</p> <p>“It was quite unethical,” he says. “There are laws in place now to protect (these national treasures) and we should respect those and work within the system rather than be tempted by the attraction of an exciting fossil you get through unethical means.”</p> <div class="image-with-caption left"> <p><img alt="Fossil of Tetrapodophis amplectus" class="media-element file-media-original" data-delta="1" height="370" src="/sites/default/files/2023-04/image001-crop.jpeg" typeof="foaf:Image" width="350" loading="lazy"><em><span style="font-size:12px;">Fossil of&nbsp;Tetrapodophis amplectus&nbsp;(photo supplied by Robert Reisz)</span></em></p> </div> <p>Reisz and Caldwell went to Germany to look over the fossil, which was housed in a small, private museum that exhibits materials from the region, including Jurassic reptiles and dinosaurs.</p> <p>“We re-studied it, spent a couple days with it, and found that the available evidence was much better than was originally presented ... because in addition to the actual fossil, there was also extensive impression,” Reisz says, adding that he and Caldwell got a lot of information from the impression of the specimen’s skull.</p> <p>He explains that when a fossil forms between layers of rock, the impression it creates as it becomes rock, together with sediments, is extremely valuable because of its precision.</p> <p>In this case, the rock that the fossil was extracted from was split – with the skeleton and skull on opposite sides of the slab. The shape of each was preserved as an impression on the opposite side. The original study overlooked the natural impression that showed that the skull was “more lizard-like than snake-like,”&nbsp;Reisz says.</p> <p>Reisz says snakes have an extremely mobile skull where many bones are reduced and others are loosely connected to each other – particularly around the back end of the skull and jaw joint. He adds that snakes can also move several bones out of the way, while still connected to each other in the skull, to swallow prey whole.</p> <p>Reisz and Caldwell also discovered that the original authors’ claims about the arrangement of the specimen’s teeth were false.</p> <p>He explains that a snake’s teeth are designed to allow prey to go in one direction down the mouth, but they are strongly curved to prevent any movement out of the mouth. “So not only was the skull more lizard-like than snake-like, but the teeth were more lizard-like too,”&nbsp;Reisz says.</p> <p>While he and his colleagues found that the&nbsp;<em>Tetrapodophis amplectus</em>&nbsp;wasn’t a snake, Reisz says it’s still a significant fossil. The team found that the anatomy was consistent with the anatomy of dolichosaurs – an group of extinct marine lizards from the Cretaceous period. It shows yet another example of the way lizards evolved and reduced their limbs to adapt to their environment, he says.</p> <p>Reisz adds that the story also serves as a reminder that “science is a quest for truth, and the closer we get to the truth, the better.”</p> <p>“We want to find out, and get as close to, the truth as possible,” he says. “Every time we find yet another interesting fossil, it gets us closer to that. We find out more about life before us.”</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-home-page-banner field--type-boolean field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">News home page banner</div> <div class="field__item">Off</div> </div> Thu, 06 Jan 2022 20:34:24 +0000 Christopher.Sorensen 301108 at Prehistoric marine worm caught prey with spines deployed from head: U of T and Yale University research /news/prehistoric-marine-worm-caught-prey-spines-deployed-head-u-t-and-yale-university-research <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">Prehistoric marine worm caught prey with spines deployed from head: U of T and Yale University research</span> <div class="field field--name-field-featured-picture field--type-image field--label-hidden field__item"> <img loading="eager" srcset="/sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_370/public/2017-08-03-arrow-worm.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=v6CZf30q 370w, /sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_740/public/2017-08-03-arrow-worm.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=gdVAprHY 740w, /sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_1110/public/2017-08-03-arrow-worm.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=FmrfidXy 1110w" sizes="(min-width:1200px) 1110px, (max-width: 1199px) 80vw, (max-width: 767px) 90vw, (max-width: 575px) 95vw" width="740" height="494" src="/sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_370/public/2017-08-03-arrow-worm.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=v6CZf30q" alt> </div> <span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"><span>ullahnor</span></span> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"><time datetime="2017-08-03T12:18:25-04:00" title="Thursday, August 3, 2017 - 12:18" class="datetime">Thu, 08/03/2017 - 12:18</time> </span> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-field-cutline-long field--type-text-long field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Cutline</div> <div class="field__item">The “Capinatator praetermissus,” a primitive arrow worm, was identified from 508-million-year-old Burgess Shale fossils. Today these predatory marine worms are smaller and found in plankton (illustration by Marianne Collins/ROM) </div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-topic field--type-entity-reference field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Topic</div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/topics/global-lens" hreflang="en">Global Lens</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-story-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/palaeontology" hreflang="en">Palaeontology</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/ecology-and-evolutionary-biology" hreflang="en">Ecology and Evolutionary Biology</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/fossils" hreflang="en">Fossils</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/faculty-arts-science" hreflang="en">Faculty of Arts &amp; Science</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-subheadline field--type-string-long field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Subheadline</div> <div class="field__item">“Capinatator” is a new species of arrow worm from the Cambrian period</div> </div> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p>A team of scientists has&nbsp;identified a small marine predator that once patrolled the ocean floor and grabbed its prey with 50 spines deployed from its head.</p> <p>Named <em>Capinatator praetermissus</em>, this ancient creature is roughly 10 centimetres long and represents a new species within the group of animals known as chaetognaths – small, swimming marine carnivores also known as arrow worms.&nbsp;</p> <p><iframe allowfullscreen frameborder="0" height="500" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/xkRNYfzlqVo" width="750"></iframe></p> <p>At more than 500 million-years-old, <em>C</em><em>apinatator</em> is thought to be a forerunner of the smaller chaetognaths that are abundant in today’s oceans, where they make up a large portion of the world’s plankton and the ocean food chain. It&nbsp;is one of the largest chaetognaths known, according to a paper&nbsp;published today in&nbsp;<a href="http://www.cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822(17)30860-6"><em>Current Biology</em></a>.&nbsp;</p> <p>“This new species would have been an efficient predator and a terrifying sight to many of the smallest marine creatures that lived during that time,” said <strong>Jean-Bernard Caron</strong>, an associate professor in the departments of ecology &amp; evolutionary biology and earth sciences at U&nbsp;of T's Faculty of Arts &amp; Science.</p> <p>He is also a&nbsp;senior curator of invertebrate palaeontology at the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM). Caron made the identification with Derek Briggs of Yale University, based on 50 specimens from the fossil-rich Burgess Shale in British Columbia.</p> <p>“This is the most significant fossil discovery about the chaetognath group of animals to date,” said Briggs, a professor of geology and geophysics and a curator at the Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History.</p> <p><img alt class="media-image attr__typeof__foaf:Image img__fid__5414 img__view_mode__media_original attr__format__media_original" src="/sites/default/files/2017-08-03-Capinatator.jpg" style="width: 750px; height: 505px; margin: 10px;" typeof="foaf:Image"><br> <em>Of the specimens studied, many preserve the feeding apparatus attached to the head, with some showing evidence of the rest of the body. Forty-eight specimens are held by the ROM. This one is from the Collins Quarry at&nbsp;Mount Stephen in the Yoho National Park, B.C. (photo by&nbsp;Jean-Bernard Caron)</em></p> <p>According to the researchers, <em>C</em><em>apinatator</em>’s head configuration is unique. With about 25 spines in each side of its head, the species has nearly double the maximum number of spines found in today’s chaetognaths. This enabled <em>Capinatator</em> to capture prey by closing the two halves of its grasping spines toward each other as it swam.</p> <p>Briggs and Caron also determined that while it is fairly common to find evidence of chaetognath spines, fossilized chaetognath bodies are extraordinarily rare. Many of the <em>Capinatator</em> specimens in this study included evidence of soft tissues.</p> <p>“These Burgess Shale fossil specimens preserve evidence of features such as the gut and muscles, which normally decay away, as well as the more decay-resistant grasping spines,” said Briggs. “They show that chaetognath predators evolved during the explosion of marine diversity during the Cambrian period&nbsp;and were an important component of some of the earliest marine ecosystems.”</p> <p><iframe allowfullscreen frameborder="0" height="500" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/exi1s-9K4vY" width="750"></iframe></p> <p>The species name <em>praetermissus</em>&nbsp;means “overlooked.”&nbsp;The name <em>Capinatator </em>is derived from <em>capio</em>,&nbsp;which means “to grasp” and <em>natator</em>,&nbsp;which means “swimmer.”</p> <p>The material for this study, currently held in the ROM’s collections, was collected under research and collecting permits provided by Parks Canada. The Burgess Shale fossil sites are located within Yoho and Kootenay National Parks. Parks Canada protects the sites and works with leading scientific researchers to expand knowledge and understanding of this key period of earth history. The Burgess Shale was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1980.</p> <p>Research funding was provided by the NASA Astrobiology Institute, the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council, the ROM Reproductions Fund&nbsp;and the Louise Hawley Stone Charitable Trust Publications Fund.</p> <h3><a href="/news/find-a-story?query=jean-bernard%20caron&amp;field_topic_tid=All&amp;field_tag_tid_1&amp;date_filter%5Bmin%5D%5Bdate%5D=&amp;date_filter%5Bmax%5D%5Bdate%5D=">Read other species identified from the Burgess Shale</a></h3> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-home-page-banner field--type-boolean field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">News home page banner</div> <div class="field__item">Off</div> </div> Thu, 03 Aug 2017 16:18:25 +0000 ullahnor 111504 at Ouch! U of T paleontologists identify 508-million-year-old sea creature with can opener-like pincers /news/ouch-u-t-paleontologists-identify-508-million-year-old-sea-creature-can-opener-pincers <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">Ouch! U of T paleontologists identify 508-million-year-old sea creature with can opener-like pincers</span> <div class="field field--name-field-featured-picture field--type-image field--label-hidden field__item"> <img loading="eager" srcset="/sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_370/public/2017-04-26-mandible-fossil.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=4yrlYXtO 370w, /sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_740/public/2017-04-26-mandible-fossil.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=5tPDJ5nu 740w, /sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_1110/public/2017-04-26-mandible-fossil.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=cbiifVUs 1110w" sizes="(min-width:1200px) 1110px, (max-width: 1199px) 80vw, (max-width: 767px) 90vw, (max-width: 575px) 95vw" width="740" height="494" src="/sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_370/public/2017-04-26-mandible-fossil.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=4yrlYXtO" alt="illustration of mandible fossil"> </div> <span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"><span>ullahnor</span></span> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"><time datetime="2017-04-26T11:39:11-04:00" title="Wednesday, April 26, 2017 - 11:39" class="datetime">Wed, 04/26/2017 - 11:39</time> </span> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-field-cutline-long field--type-text-long field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Cutline</div> <div class="field__item">Reconstruction of “Tokummia katalepsis” showing a pair of large pincers at the front for capturing prey with much of the multi-segmented body protected by a hardened shell (illustration by Lars Fields)</div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-author-reporters field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/authors-reporters/sean-bettam" hreflang="en">Sean Bettam</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-author-legacy field--type-string field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Author legacy</div> <div class="field__item">Sean Bettam</div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-topic field--type-entity-reference field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Topic</div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/topics/breaking-research" hreflang="en">Breaking Research</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-story-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/fossils" hreflang="en">Fossils</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/marine" hreflang="en">Marine</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/faculty-arts-science" hreflang="en">Faculty of Arts &amp; Science</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/paleontology" hreflang="en">Paleontology</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/ecology-evolutionary-biology" hreflang="en">Ecology &amp; Evolutionary Biology</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/earth-sciences" hreflang="en">Earth Sciences</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-subheadline field--type-string-long field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Subheadline</div> <div class="field__item">Discovery points to origin of millipedes, crabs and insects among other species</div> </div> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p>Paleontologists at the ߲ݴý and the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) have uncovered a new fossil species that sheds light on the origin of mandibulates, the most abundant and diverse group of organisms on Earth, to which belong familiar animals such as flies, ants, crayfish and centipedes.</p> <p><a href="http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nature22080.html">The finding was announced in a study published today in <em>Nature</em>.</a></p> <h3><a href="http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/bc-fossil-discovered-with-can-opener-like-pincers/article34825763/">Read more at the <em>Globe and Mail</em></a></h3> <p>The creature, named <em>Tokummia katalepsis</em> by the researchers, is a new and exceptionally well-preserved fossilized arthropod – a ubiquitous group of invertebrate animals with segmented limbs and hardened exoskeletons.</p> <h3><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/speaking-of-science/wp/2017/04/26/this-508-million-year-old-sea-predator-had-a-remarkable-mouth/?utm_term=.ca18907c5ed4">Read more at <em>The Washington Post</em></a></h3> <h3><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/science/2017/apr/26/pincer-wielding-507m-year-old-fossil-sheds-light-on-evolution-of-crabs">Read more at<em> The Guardian</em></a></h3> <p><em>Tokummia </em>documents for the first time in detail the anatomy of early “mandibulates,”&nbsp;a hyperdiverse sub-group of arthropods that&nbsp;possess a pair of specialized appendages known as mandibles, used to grasp, crush and cut their food. Mandibulates include millions of species and represent one of the greatest evolutionary and ecological success stories of life on Earth.</p> <p>“In spite of their colossal diversity today, the origin of mandibulates had largely remained a mystery,” said<strong> Cédric Aria</strong>, lead author of the study and a recent graduate of U of T's PhD program in the Faculty of Arts &amp; Science's department of ecology &amp; evolutionary biology. “Before now, we’ve had only sparse hints at what the first arthropods with mandibles could have looked like&nbsp;and no idea of what could have been the other key characteristics that triggered the unrivalled diversification of that group.”<br> &nbsp;</p> <p><iframe allowfullscreen frameborder="0" height="500" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/2h2iTIOpxKg" width="750"></iframe></p> <p>The creature&nbsp;lived in a tropical sea teeming with life and was among the largest Cambrian predators, exceeding 10 centimetres in length fully extended.</p> <p>An occasional swimmer, its robust anterior legs made it a preferred bottom-dweller, like&nbsp;lobsters or mantis shrimps today. Specimens come from 508 million-year-old sedimentary rocks near Marble Canyon in Kootenay National Park, British Columbia. Most specimens at the basis of this study were collected during extensive ROM-led fieldwork activities in 2014.</p> <p>“This spectacular new predator, one of the largest and best preserved soft-bodied arthropods from Marble Canyon, joins the ranks of many unusual marine creatures that lived during the Cambrian explosion, a period of rapid evolutionary change starting about half a billion years ago when most major animal groups first emerged in the fossil record,” said co-author <strong>Jean-Bernard Caron</strong>, senior curator of invertebrate paleontology at the ROM and an associate professor in the departments of ecology &amp; evolutionary biology and earth sciences at U of T.</p> <p><img alt class="media-image attr__typeof__foaf:Image img__fid__4388 img__view_mode__media_original attr__format__media_original" src="/sites/default/files/2017-04-26-mandible-fossil2.jpg" style="width: 750px; height: 501px; margin: 10px;" typeof="foaf:Image"><br> <em>This specimen of&nbsp;Tokummia katalepsis&nbsp;shows a number of strong legs on the left partially protruding from the body, the shape of the bivalved carapace and dozens of small paddle-like limbs below the trunk at the lower right. This nearly complete fossil&nbsp;was chosen as the main reference for the new genus&nbsp;Tokummia&nbsp;and new species&nbsp;katalep&nbsp;(photo courtesy of&nbsp;Jean-Bernard Caron)&nbsp;</em></p> <p>Analysis of several fossil specimens, following careful mechanical preparation and photographic work at the ROM, showed that <em>Tokummia</em> sported broad serrated mandibles as well as large but specialized anterior claws,&nbsp;called&nbsp;maxillipeds, which are typical features of modern mandibulates.</p> <p>“The pincers of <em>Tokummia</em> are large, yet also delicate and complex, reminding us of the shape of a can opener&nbsp;with their couple of terminal teeth on one claw&nbsp;and the other claw being curved towards them,” said Aria, who is now working as a post-doctoral researcher at the&nbsp;Nanjing Institute for Geology and Palaeontology&nbsp;in China. “But we think they might have been too fragile to be handling shelly animals&nbsp;and might have been better adapted to the capture of sizable soft prey items, perhaps hiding away in mud. Once torn apart by the spiny limb bases under the trunk, the mandibles would have served as a revolutionary tool to cut the flesh into small, easily digestible pieces.”</p> <p>The body of<em> Tokummia</em> is made of more than 50 small segments covered by a broad two-piece shell-like structure called a bivalved carapace. Importantly, the animal bears subdivided limb bases with tiny projections called endites, which can be found in the larvae of certain crustaceans and are now thought to have been critical innovations for the evolution of various legs of mandibulates&nbsp;and for the mandibles themselves.</p> <p><img alt class="media-image attr__typeof__foaf:Image img__fid__4392 img__view_mode__media_original attr__format__media_original" src="/sites/default/files/2017-04-26-mandible-fossil3_0.jpg" style="width: 750px; height: 500px; margin: 10px;" typeof="foaf:Image"><br> <em>The specimen shows&nbsp;a pair of large pincers (maxillipeds) at the front preserved almost symmetrically. The anterior walking appendages are covered by the large carapace. Posterior appendages&nbsp;would have been used for occasional swimming and maybe a respiratory function. The trunk ends in a furcate tailpiece. (photo courtesy of Jean-Bernard Caron)&nbsp;</em></p> <p>The many-segmented body is otherwise reminiscent of myriapods, a group that includes centipedes, millipedes&nbsp;and their relatives.</p> <p>“<em>Tokummia</em> also lacks the typical second antenna found in crustaceans, which illustrates a very surprising convergence with such terrestrial mandibulates,” said Aria.</p> <p>The study also resolves the affinities of other emblematic fossils from Canada’s Burgess Shale more than a hundred years after their discovery.</p> <p>“Our study suggests that a number of other Burgess Shale fossils such as <em>Branchiocaris</em>, <em>Canadaspis</em> and <em>Odaraia</em> form with <em>Tokummia</em> a group of crustacean-like arthropods that we can now place at the base of all mandibulates,” said Aria.</p> <p>The animal was named after Tokumm Creek, which flows through Marble Canyon in northern Kootenay National Park, and is the Greek for “seizing.”&nbsp;The Marble Canyon fossil deposit was first discovered in 2012 during prospection work led by the Royal Ontario Museum and is part of the Burgess Shale fossil deposit, which extends north into Yoho National Park in the Canadian Rockies. All specimens are held in the collections of the Royal Ontario Museum on behalf of Parks Canada.</p> <p>The Burgess Shale fossil sites are located within Yoho and Kootenay national parks in British Columbia. The Burgess Shale was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1980. Parks Canada protects these globally significant palaeontological sites&nbsp;and works with leading scientific researchers to expand knowledge and understanding of this key period in&nbsp;the Earth's history. New information from ongoing scientific research is continually incorporated into Parks Canada's Burgess Shale education and interpretation programs, which include guided hikes to the&nbsp;fossil sites.</p> <p>Funding for the research was provided primarily by a Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada Discovery Grant to Caron, and Royal Ontario Museum fieldwork grants.</p> <p><img alt class="media-image attr__typeof__foaf:Image img__fid__4393 img__view_mode__media_original attr__format__media_original" src="/sites/default/files/2017-04-26-mandible-fossil-4.jpg" style="width: 750px; height: 500px; margin: 10px;" typeof="foaf:Image"><br> <em>Cédric Aria (left) and other crew members are splitting layers of shale from the Marble Canyon quarry site in the hopes of revealing new fossils and then cataloguing the specimens for further examination back at the museum (photo courtesy of Jean-Bernard Caron)&nbsp;</em></p> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-home-page-banner field--type-boolean field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">News home page banner</div> <div class="field__item">Off</div> </div> Wed, 26 Apr 2017 15:39:11 +0000 ullahnor 107014 at U of T researchers and science illustrator bring fossilized creatures to life /news/u-t-researchers-and-science-illustrator-bring-fossilized-creatures-life <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">U of T researchers and science illustrator bring fossilized creatures to life </span> <div class="field field--name-field-featured-picture field--type-image field--label-hidden field__item"> <img loading="eager" srcset="/sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_370/public/2017-02-27-fossil-ROM%20%281%29.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=HWdQgYXC 370w, /sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_740/public/2017-02-27-fossil-ROM%20%281%29.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=uvHvx836 740w, /sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_1110/public/2017-02-27-fossil-ROM%20%281%29.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=WuAm3hOD 1110w" sizes="(min-width:1200px) 1110px, (max-width: 1199px) 80vw, (max-width: 767px) 90vw, (max-width: 575px) 95vw" width="740" height="494" src="/sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_370/public/2017-02-27-fossil-ROM%20%281%29.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=HWdQgYXC" alt="picture of worm-like creature"> </div> <span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"><span>geoff.vendeville</span></span> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"><time datetime="2017-02-27T11:06:28-05:00" title="Monday, February 27, 2017 - 11:06" class="datetime">Mon, 02/27/2017 - 11:06</time> </span> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-field-cutline-long field--type-text-long field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Cutline</div> <div class="field__item">A scientific illustration of Ovatiovermis cribratus shows how this legged worm-like creature would have looked like with its front-feeding limbs extended (illustration by Danielle Dufault ©Royal Ontario Museum)</div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-author-reporters field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/authors-reporters/geoffrey-vendeville" hreflang="en">Geoffrey Vendeville</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-author-legacy field--type-string field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Author legacy</div> <div class="field__item">Geoffrey Vendeville</div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-topic field--type-entity-reference field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Topic</div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/topics/our-community" hreflang="en">Our Community</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-story-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/paleontology" hreflang="en">Paleontology</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/royal-ontario-museum" hreflang="en">Royal Ontario Museum</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/fossils" hreflang="en">Fossils</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/new-species" hreflang="en">New Species</a></div> </div> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p>U of T researchers – some&nbsp;of whom are students – have uncovered fossils of creatures that roamed the earth or swam in its waters millions of years ago.</p> <p>But it’s only with the help of science illustrators like Danielle Dufault at the Royal Ontario Museum that they are able to bring these long-extinct species back to life.</p> <p>After many hours of research and consultation with experts, she depicts ancient creatures using traditional and digital media.</p> <p>“Being able to work and collaborate with scientists gives you&nbsp;the opportunity to learn every day,” she told&nbsp;<em>U of T News</em>.&nbsp;“This is honestly my dream job.”</p> <p>On Tuesday, Dufault will be&nbsp;speaking at the annual ROM Research Colloquium and Vaughan Lecture, about her work with researchers.</p> <h3><a href="http://www.rom.on.ca/en/whats-on/rom-research-colloquium">Read more about the event&nbsp;</a></h3> <p><iframe allowfullscreen frameborder="0" height="500" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/0GQyE46-LaA" width="750"></iframe></p> <p>U of T undergrad<strong>&nbsp;Joseph Moysiuk</strong>&nbsp;recently worked with Dufault&nbsp;to animate a marine creature known as a hyolith, which evolved more than 530 million years ago. The 20-year-old led a team of scientists to&nbsp;classify the mysterious cone-shaped&nbsp;creatures, showing that they were more closely related to brachiopods.&nbsp;<em>The New York Times&nbsp;</em>recently described&nbsp;the creature&nbsp;as a&nbsp;“tentacled ice cream cone with a lid.”</p> <p>Although there is a rich fossil record of the hyolith, important diagnostic aspects of their soft-anatomy remained a mystery until now. And so drawing a brachiopod that existed even before the first dinosaurs was no simple task.</p> <p>Dufault and Moysiuk started with what evidence they had, including fossils from the Burgess Shale in the Canadian Rocky Mountains and collections in the ROM.</p> <p>“With fossils from the Burgess Shale, which are effectively compressed into flattened carbon films, the challenge is to figure out what the living animal would have looked like in three-dimensions,” Moysiuk said.</p> <p><img alt class="media-image attr__typeof__foaf:Image img__fid__3574 img__view_mode__media_original attr__format__media_original" src="/sites/default/files/2017-01-11-Joseph%20Moysiuk_0.jpg" style="width: 750px; height: 563px;" typeof="foaf:Image"><br> <em>U of T undergrad Joseph Moysiuk showing matching halves of a fossil slab in Kootenay National Park (photo courtesy of Joseph Moysiuk)</em></p> <h3><a href="/news/u-t-undergrad-leads-team-paleontologists-classifying-mysterious-ancient-cone-shaped-sea">Read more about the cone-shaped hyolith</a></h3> <p>Another difficulty is that fossilized remains are rarely complete, so researchers and illustrators must often fill in the blanks.</p> <p>Over the years, Dufault has sat&nbsp;down and worked with many students and U of T researchers like Moysiuk cross-appointed to the ROM to create images for these&nbsp;ancient creatures. She asks&nbsp;researchers to go over the details of the&nbsp;creature's anatomy, asking questions like how many limbs did it have, how were they attached to the body, and how did the creature&nbsp;move.&nbsp;</p> <p>Often, colour is a point of contention. Usually the scientists and illustrator will choose a colour based on the animal’s “ecological niche,” including where it falls in the food chain.</p> <p>“Colour always serves some kind of function in nature,” Dufault explained.</p> <p>To better understand a fossilized animal's environment, she will sometimes accompany researchers to a dig as she did in South Dakota for the excavation of a triceratops. She shares some of those adventures via <a href="http://twitter.com/MesozoicMuse">Twitter</a>.</p> <p><img alt class="media-image attr__typeof__foaf:Image img__fid__3572 img__view_mode__media_original attr__format__media_original" height="472" src="/sites/default/files/Mesozoic%20Muse.JPG" typeof="foaf:Image" width="588" loading="lazy"></p> <h3><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/11/science/hyolith-fossil.html">Read about Moysiuk in <em>The New York Times</em>&nbsp;</a></h3> <p>Moysiuk said the process can&nbsp;help researchers refine their hypotheses.&nbsp;</p> <p>“If something doesn’t make sense in the reconstruction, you have a chance to go back and look at the fossils to see why,” he said.</p> <p>“For our project, it was particularly difficult to determine how the helens (curving spines) would have been positioned relative to the body in the living hyolith.”</p> <p>U of T Associate Professor <strong>Jean-Bernard Caron</strong> and researcher&nbsp;<strong>Cédric Aria</strong>, who recently completed a PhD in U of T's department of ecology and evolutionary biology, have worked with Dufault to illustrate a new species, <em>Ovatiovermis cribratus</em>, a 500-million-year-old worm-like creature said to be no longer than a thumb.</p> <p>Aria said he had also worked with Dufault to animate a fossil called <a href="https://www.rom.on.ca/en/about-us/newsroom/press-releases/new-lobster-like-predator-found-in-508-million-year-old-fossil-rich"><em>Yawunik</em></a>, a lobster-like, Cambrian-age predator which is an ancestor of butterflies and spiders.</p> <p>The pictures, which end up in studies, textbooks and museums, help communicate research findings to a wide audience, Aria said. In fact, the depictions are partly what drew him to the field.</p> <p>“If I am a paleontologist today, it is because some reconstructions of prehistoric animals have managed to capture both the novelty and the reality of extinct life,” he said.</p> <h3><a href="/news/500-million-year-old-species-%E2%80%93-detailed-u-t-scientists-%E2%80%93-offers-insight-ancient-legged-worms">Read more about the worm-like creature</a></h3> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-home-page-banner field--type-boolean field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">News home page banner</div> <div class="field__item">Off</div> </div> Mon, 27 Feb 2017 16:06:28 +0000 geoff.vendeville 105250 at 500-million-year-old species – detailed by U of T scientists – offers insight into ancient legged worms /news/500-million-year-old-species-detailed-u-t-scientists-offers-insight-ancient-legged-worms <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">500-million-year-old species – detailed by U of T scientists – offers insight into ancient legged worms</span> <div class="field field--name-field-featured-picture field--type-image field--label-hidden field__item"> <img loading="eager" srcset="/sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_370/public/fossil-ROM.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=J8yHUAWs 370w, /sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_740/public/fossil-ROM.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=fiZpe44Y 740w, /sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_1110/public/fossil-ROM.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=JF_Hcc_N 1110w" sizes="(min-width:1200px) 1110px, (max-width: 1199px) 80vw, (max-width: 767px) 90vw, (max-width: 575px) 95vw" width="740" height="494" src="/sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_370/public/fossil-ROM.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=J8yHUAWs" alt="illustration of ovatiovermis"> </div> <span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"><span>ullahnor</span></span> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"><time datetime="2017-01-31T10:24:35-05:00" title="Tuesday, January 31, 2017 - 10:24" class="datetime">Tue, 01/31/2017 - 10:24</time> </span> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-field-cutline-long field--type-text-long field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Cutline</div> <div class="field__item">A scientific illustration of Ovatiovermis cribratus shows how this soft-bodied marine animal would have looked like with its front-feeding limbs extended (illustration by Danielle Dufault ©Royal Ontario Museum)</div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-author-reporters field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/authors-reporters/royal-ontario-museum" hreflang="en">Royal Ontario Museum</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-author-legacy field--type-string field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Author legacy</div> <div class="field__item"> Royal Ontario Museum, Faculty of Arts &amp; Science</div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-topic field--type-entity-reference field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Topic</div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/topics/breaking-research" hreflang="en">Breaking Research</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-story-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/fossils" hreflang="en">Fossils</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/rom" hreflang="en">ROM</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/ecology-and-evolutionary-biology" hreflang="en">Ecology and Evolutionary Biology</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/earth-sciences" hreflang="en">Earth Sciences</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/faculty-arts-science" hreflang="en">Faculty of Arts &amp; Science</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/new-species" hreflang="en">New Species</a></div> </div> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p>A new species of lobopodian –&nbsp;a worm-like animal that could stand nearly upright – from the Cambrian period (541 to 485 million years ago), has been detailed for the first time from fossils found in the Burgess Shale in the Canadian Rocky Mountains.</p> <p>Details of the new species, called <em>Ovatiovermis cribratus</em>, have&nbsp;been&nbsp;published in the open access journal <a href="http://bmcevolbiol.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12862-016-0858-y"><em>BMC Evolutionary Biology</em></a>.</p> <p><iframe allowfullscreen frameborder="0" height="500" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/wAlDXupmbOs" width="750"></iframe></p> <p>The new species is only the third lobopodian that has been formally described from the Burgess Shale. It is one of the rarest species found there, and now it's in the collections of the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto.</p> <p><strong>Jean-Bernard Caron</strong>, an associate professor at U of T and senior curator of invertebrate paleontology at the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) is the lead author of the study.</p> <p>“Although <em>Ovatiovermis</em> is no longer than my thumb with all limbs stretched out and is only known from two specimens, this new species provides fantastic new insights into the ecology and relationship of lobopodians, a group of mainly Cambrian marine invertebrates which are key to our understanding of modern tardigrades, onychophorans and the largest group of animals on Earth – the arthropods,” said Caron, a researcher in the departments of <a href="http://www.eeb.utoronto.ca/">ecology and evolutionary biology</a>&nbsp;and <a href="http://www.es.utoronto.ca/">earth sciences</a>&nbsp;at U of T's Faculty of Arts &amp; Science.</p> <p>Caron and<strong> Cédric Aria</strong>, a PhD candidate in&nbsp;U&nbsp;of T's department of ecology and evolutionary biology, believe that strong recurved claws on the back limbs may have allowed <em>Ovatiovermis</em> and other related species to anchor themselves on hard surfaces and stand more or less upright. Two long pairs of flexible and spinulose (hairy or spiky) limbs at the front of the body would then have been used to filter or collect food from water and bring it closer to the animals’ toothed, eversible mouth.</p> <p>“The various adaptations of this new animal to anchored particle feeding are reflected in its name,” said Aria, a co-author of the study. “The species, cribratus, is the Latin for “to sieve,” whereas the genus name, <em>Ovatiovermis</em>, refers to that posture it must have ordinarily taken along the bottom of the sea: a worm-like creature that stood in perpetual ovation.”</p> <p><img alt class="media-image attr__typeof__foaf:Image img__fid__3312 img__view_mode__media_original attr__format__media_original" height="500" src="/sites/default/files/Ovatiovermis2.jpg" typeof="foaf:Image" width="750" loading="lazy"><br> <em>This specimen, the holotype for “Ovatiovermis cribratus,” was collected in 1994 by the Royal Ontario Museum at the Walcott quarry, located in Yoho National Park, British Columbia (photo by&nbsp;Jean-Bernard Caron&nbsp;©Royal Ontario Museum)</em></p> <p>Even though lobopodians have long been known and studied, and occupy an intriguing position in the tree of life of invertebrate animals, their ecology had remained poorly understood. The authors of the study also think that their findings provide new views on the evolution of lobopodians and their relatives.</p> <p>“Lobopodians have mostly been seen so far as an eclectic group,” Aria said. “We think that suspension feeding was common among them and turned out to be important in the initial ‘burst’ of that colossal group that gave rise to water bears, velvet worms and arthropods. Interestingly, today, skeleton shrimps (Caprellidae), which are arthropods and thus much more complex living relatives of the lobopodians, have adopted a very similar lifestyle, and you can see them waving in the drifting water possibly much like <em>Ovatiovermis</em> used to.”</p> <p>Caron said the study also adds to what's known about suspension feeding.</p> <p>“These results contribute to cumulative evidence that suspension feeding was already a widespread mode of life during the Cambrian period,” Caron said. “Its emergence has been important for the elaboration of modern marine ecosystems&nbsp;and must have played a role in the rapid diversification of the first animals.”</p> <p><img alt class="media-image attr__typeof__foaf:Image img__fid__3313 img__view_mode__media_original attr__format__media_original" height="512" src="/sites/default/files/Walcott%20Quarry%20%281994-DCollins%20image%292.jpg" typeof="foaf:Image" width="750" loading="lazy"><br> <em>Excavation work in 1994 by a team from the ROM at the Walcott quarry revealed new fossiliferous layers below the Walcott quarry (photo by&nbsp;Desmond Collins&nbsp;©Royal Ontario Museum)</em></p> <p>The researchers were surprised however to find that unlike many other lobopodians, <em>O. cribratus</em>, did not have any hard structures to protect its body.</p> <p>“Contrary to its relatives, this species does not have any spines or plates on its body for protection,” Caron said. “Its ‘naked’ state begs the question of how it was able to guard against predators.”</p> <p>The absence of ornament in the new species demonstrates that organisms that lived in the Cambrian period did not exclusively develop hard defensive structures to protect themselves.</p> <p>The researchers speculate that <em>O. cribratus</em> may have lived in sponge colonies to avoid predators, or that by analogy with modern animals it used camouflage or was toxic or distasteful to predators. However, this is a question that is difficult to solve with fossils, and it may remain forever one of <em>Ovatiovermis</em>’ secrets.</p> <p>The Burgess Shale, located in Yoho and Kootenay National Parks, is part of the Canadian Rocky Mountain Parks World Heritage Site. The holotype specimen was discovered by the Royal Ontario Museum in the Walcott Quarry, the original Burgess Shale site, in Yoho National Park. It remained the only known specimen of this new species for nearly two decades until a park visitor serendipitously discovered a second specimen while on a recent Parks Canada sponsored guided hike to the Walcott Quarry.</p> <p>Parks Canada protects the Burgess Shale, and supports peer-reviewed scientific research that continues to enhance our understanding of these rich palaeontological deposits. This new discovery adds another element to the story of early animal evolution that Parks Canada guides share enthusiastically with hundreds of park visitors every year.</p> <p><img alt class="media-image attr__typeof__foaf:Image img__fid__3314 img__view_mode__media_original attr__format__media_original" height="500" src="/sites/default/files/Ovatiovermis3.jpg" typeof="foaf:Image" width="750" loading="lazy"><br> <em>Illustration of “Ovatiovermis cribratus” showing how the holotype specimen became trapped in the sediment, partially sideways, before becoming a fossil (illustration by&nbsp;Danielle Dufault&nbsp;©Royal Ontario Museum)</em></p> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-home-page-banner field--type-boolean field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">News home page banner</div> <div class="field__item">Off</div> </div> Tue, 31 Jan 2017 15:24:35 +0000 ullahnor 104242 at When snakes had legs: New look at rare fossil reveals clues about early reptiles /news/when-snakes-had-legs-new-look-rare-fossil-reveals-clues-about-early-reptiles <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">When snakes had legs: New look at rare fossil reveals clues about early reptiles</span> <div class="field field--name-field-featured-picture field--type-image field--label-hidden field__item"> <img loading="eager" srcset="/sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_370/public/2016-06-27-snake-legs-resized.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=SZSSk_dM 370w, /sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_740/public/2016-06-27-snake-legs-resized.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=KACKeQwm 740w, /sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_1110/public/2016-06-27-snake-legs-resized.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=tW6aLbxh 1110w" sizes="(min-width:1200px) 1110px, (max-width: 1199px) 80vw, (max-width: 767px) 90vw, (max-width: 575px) 95vw" width="740" height="494" src="/sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_370/public/2016-06-27-snake-legs-resized.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=SZSSk_dM" alt="composite photo of fossil and artist's rendering of snake "> </div> <span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"><span>krisha</span></span> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"><time datetime="2016-06-27T09:49:28-04:00" title="Monday, June 27, 2016 - 09:49" class="datetime">Mon, 06/27/2016 - 09:49</time> </span> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-field-cutline-long field--type-text-long field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Cutline</div> <div class="field__item">The fossil snake Tetrapodophis, as preserved (composite image of part and counterpart) and as reconstructed in life (image by: Alessandro Palci, Michael Caldwell &amp; Michael Lee - Flinders University, University of Alberta and South Australian Museum)</div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-author-reporters field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/authors-reporters/blake-eligh" hreflang="en">Blake Eligh</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-author-legacy field--type-string field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Author legacy</div> <div class="field__item">Blake Eligh</div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-topic field--type-entity-reference field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Topic</div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/topics/global-lens" hreflang="en">Global Lens</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-story-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/utm" hreflang="en">UTM</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/paleontology" hreflang="en">Paleontology</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/fossils" hreflang="en">Fossils</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/international" hreflang="en">International</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/collaboration" hreflang="en">Collaboration</a></div> </div> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p>Close examination of a rare Brazilian fossil is shedding new light on an enduring controversy in evolutionary thought&nbsp;–&nbsp;why snakes evolved their long, limbless bodies.</p> <p>At the heart of the controversy is a tiny fossil discovered in Brazil. Known as a squamate, <em>Tetrapdophis amplectus</em> was a snakelike creature that lived about 110&nbsp;million years ago during the early Cretaceous period. It is is considered one of the oldest snakes and is notable for having four small, paddle-like legs.</p> <p>Previous research described the creature as a primitive snake and worm-like burrower, suggesting that snakes originally evolved to live underground. However, new findings by a Canadian-Australian research team reveal that the creature was more closely related to aquatic lizards, suggesting that snakes evolved their long bodies for eel-like swimming.</p> <p>Professor <strong>Robert Reisz</strong> of U of T Mississauga’s department of biology studied the 20-centimetre-long juvenile specimen first-hand.</p> <p>“This exquisite tiny fossil is very slender, with limbs that are certainly not suited for burrowing,” Reisz says. “Instead, it shares features with aquatic lizards from the Late Cretaceous. Tetrapodophis may be closely related to snakes and resembles a snake, but probably is not a snake proper.”</p> <h2><a href="/news/find-a-story?keys=Robert%20Reisz%20&amp;field_topic_tid=All&amp;date_filter%5Bmin%5D%5Bdate%5D=&amp;date_filter%5Bmax%5D%5Bdate%5D=&amp;field_tag_tid_1">Read more about research by Robert Reisz</a></h2> <p>According to the research team, <em>Tetrapodophis</em>’ shape –&nbsp;a long slender tail and four slender legs –&nbsp;doesn’t fit with the characteristics we see in burrowing snakes and lizards alive today. The team also observed that<em> Tetrapodophis</em> limb bones appear weak and poorly ossified&nbsp;–&nbsp;both traits that are similar to ancient marine lizards such as mosasaurs. The findings suggest that snakes had aquatic origins.</p> <p>The radical new ideas about the aquatic habits of <em>Tetrapodophis</em> add to the debate, and helps cement this tiny reptile as one of the most important and controversial fossils of our times,” says Reisz.</p> <p>The research appears online in the latest issue of <a href="http://www.journals.elsevier.com/cretaceous-research"><em>Cretaceous Research</em></a>.</p> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-home-page-banner field--type-boolean field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">News home page banner</div> <div class="field__item">Off</div> </div> Mon, 27 Jun 2016 13:49:28 +0000 krisha 14504 at Rare find at Burgess Shale: preserved embryos inside 508-million-year-old Waptia fossil /news/rare-find-burgess-shale-preserved-embryos-inside-508-million-year-old-waptia-fossil <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">Rare find at Burgess Shale: preserved embryos inside 508-million-year-old Waptia fossil</span> <span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"><span>sgupta</span></span> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"><time datetime="2015-12-17T06:34:10-05:00" title="Thursday, December 17, 2015 - 06:34" class="datetime">Thu, 12/17/2015 - 06:34</time> </span> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-field-cutline-long field--type-text-long field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Cutline</div> <div class="field__item"> Royal Ontario Museum)</div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-author-reporters field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/authors-reporters/sean-bettam" hreflang="en">Sean Bettam</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-author-legacy field--type-string field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Author legacy</div> <div class="field__item">Sean Bettam</div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-topic field--type-entity-reference field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Topic</div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/topics/breaking-research" hreflang="en">Breaking Research</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-story-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/top-stories" hreflang="en">Top Stories</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/fossils" hreflang="en">Fossils</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/faculty-arts-science" hreflang="en">Faculty of Arts &amp; Science</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/research" hreflang="en">Research</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-subheadline field--type-string-long field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Subheadline</div> <div class="field__item">Unusual evidence of creature caring for its offspring </div> </div> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p>Long before kangaroos carried their joeys in their pouches and honey bees nurtured their young in hives, there was the 508-million-year-old <em>Waptia</em>.</p> <p>Little is known about the shrimp-like creature first discovered in the renowned Canadian Burgess Shale fossil deposit a century ago, but recent analysis by scientists from the ߲ݴý, Royal Ontario Museum, and France’s <a href="http://www.cnrs.fr/">Centre national de la recherche scientifique</a> has uncovered eggs with embryos preserved within the body of the animal. It is the oldest example of brood care in the fossil record.</p> <p>"As the oldest direct evidence of a creature caring for its offspring, the discovery adds another piece to our understanding of brood care practices during the Cambrian Explosion, a period of rapid evolutionary development when most major animal groups appear in the fossil record," said <strong>Jean-Bernard Caron</strong>, curator of invertebrate palaeontology at the Royal Ontario Museum and associate professor in the departments of earth sciences and ecology and&nbsp;evolutionary biology in the Faculty of Arts &amp; Science at U of T.</p> <h2><a href="http://news.utoronto.ca/tags/caron">Read more about Caron's research</a></h2> <p>Caron, along with Jean Vannier at the Centre national de la recherche scientifique in Lyon, France, describe the findings in a study published December 17 in <a href="http://www.cell.com/current-biology/home"><em>Current Biology</em></a>.</p> <p><em>Waptia fieldensis</em> is an early arthropod, belonging to a group of animals that includes lobsters and crayfish. It had a two-part structure covering the front segment of its body near the head, known as a bivalved carapace. Caron and Vannier believe the carapace played a fundamental role in how the creature practised brood care.</p> <p>"Clusters of egg-shaped objects are evident in five of the many specimens we observed, all located on the underside of the carapace and alongside the anterior third of the body," said Caron.</p> <p>The clusters are grouped in a single layer on each side of the body with no or limited overlapping among the eggs. In some specimens, eggs are equidistant from each other, while in others, some are are closer together, probably reflecting variations in the angle of burial and movement during burial. The maximum number of eggs preserved per per individuals probably reached 24.</p> <p><img alt="artist's rendering" src="/sites/default/files/2015-12-16-Waptia-fieldensis-with-brooded-eggs-illustration.jpg" style="width: 625px; height: 285px; margin: 10px 25px;"></p> <p>“This creature is expanding our perspective on the diversification of brood care in early arthropods," said Vannier, the co-author of the study. “The relatively large size of the eggs and the small number of them, contrasts with the high number of small eggs found previously in another bivalved arthropod known as <em>Kunmingella douvillei</em>. And though that creature predates <em>Waptia</em> by about seven million years, none of its eggs contained embryos.”</p> <p><em>Kunmingella douvillei</em> also presented a different method of carrying its young, as its eggs were found lower on the body and attached to its appendages.</p> <p>The presence of these two different parental strategies suggests an independent and rapid evolution of a variety of methods of parental care of offspring. Together with previously described brooded eggs in ostracods from the Upper Ordovician period 450 million years ago, the discovery supports the theory that the presence of a bivalved carapace played a key role in the early evolution of brood care in arthropods.</p> <p>The research appears in a study titled "Waptia and the diversification of brood care in early arthropods" published in <em>Current Biology</em>. It was supported by a Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada Discovery Grant to Caron, an ANR (Agence Nationale de la Recherche) Grant to Jean Vannier, and the University of Lyon.</p> <p>These remarkable research specimen fossils are displayed at the Royal Ontario Museum in the new Dawn of Life Preview exhibition.</p> <p><em>Sean Bettam is a writer with the Faculty of Arts &amp; Science at the ߲ݴý</em></p> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-home-page-banner field--type-boolean field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">News home page banner</div> <div class="field__item">Off</div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-picpath field--type-string field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">picpath</div> <div class="field__item">sites/default/files/2015-12-16-wapita-fossil.jpg</div> </div> Thu, 17 Dec 2015 11:34:10 +0000 sgupta 7533 at U of T prof unlocks mystery of an ancient mass extinction /news/u-t-prof-unlocks-mystery-ancient-mass-extinction <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">U of T prof unlocks mystery of an ancient mass extinction</span> <span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"><span>sgupta</span></span> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"><time datetime="2015-10-01T12:03:47-04:00" title="Thursday, October 1, 2015 - 12:03" class="datetime">Thu, 10/01/2015 - 12:03</time> </span> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-field-cutline-long field--type-text-long field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Cutline</div> <div class="field__item">(all photos via Marc Laflamme)</div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-author-reporters field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/authors-reporters/blake-eligh" hreflang="en">Blake Eligh</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-author-legacy field--type-string field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Author legacy</div> <div class="field__item">Blake Eligh</div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-topic field--type-entity-reference field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Topic</div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/topics/breaking-research" hreflang="en">Breaking Research</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-story-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/more-news" hreflang="en">More News</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/utm" hreflang="en">UTM</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/paleontology" hreflang="en">Paleontology</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/fossils" hreflang="en">Fossils</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/research" hreflang="en">Research</a></div> </div> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p>߲ݴý Mississauga paleontologist <strong>Marc Laflamme</strong> spends his summers exploring the rocky red canyons of Namibia, searching for the faint fossilized remains of a long-extinct and very unusual creature.</p> <p>Neither animal nor vegetable, the biotas of the Ediacaran period were the earliest large, complex life forms on the planet, dominating salt oceans for nearly 40 million years. Very little is known about the soft-bodied creatures, except that they mysteriously disappeared about 500 million years ago, and have no living relatives today.</p> <p>While the life of the creatures remains something of a mystery, Laflamme and his colleagues may have unlocked the secret of how and why the Ediacarans died out at the beginning of the Cambrian period. Ecosystem engineering by newly-evolving animals radically changed the Ediacaran environmen, causing the demise of the unusual organisms. The team’s research is published in the <a href="http://rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/282/1814/20151003">September edition of the <em>Proceedings of the Royal Society B</em></a>.</p> <p>The researchers examined three theories about why the Ediacaran creatures disappeared.</p> <p>“We theorized that the disappearance of Ediacarans could be due to a lack of (fossil) preservation, a catastrophic mass extinction due to climate change, or something else,” Laflamme says. The answer, to the team’s surprise, turned out to be the third option.</p> <p>But before they could prove that theory, the team had to actually locate the fossils. The team looks for subtle tube-like impressions in the rocks by the soft-bodied organisms that lived on the floor of long-gone salt-water bodies.</p> <p><img alt="photo of fossil" src="/sites/default/files/2015-10-01-Ediacaran-fossil-.jpg" style="width: 625px; height: 417px; margin: 10px 25px;"></p> <p>“It’s a challenge to find fossilized records,” Laflamme says. There are about 50 sites around the world where Ediacaran fossils are found but, according to Laflamme, the Namibian site is a fossil bonanza.</p> <p>“It marks the boundary of the Ediacaran world and the animal world, so we can study how ecosystems changed,” he says.</p> <p>Geochemistry ruled out the catastrophic mass extinction theory. “Conducting tests on the chemical composition of the rocks tells us if we were dealing with environments that were oxygenated or undergoing a stressful change,” he says.</p> <p>Positive results would have shown changes in ancient environments due to massive climate change, a volcanic activity or meteor impacts.</p> <p>“We looked for evidence in the geochemistry, but our data didn’t show evidence of environmentally-driven extinction.”</p> <p>But a different look at the fossil record revealed a surprising answer to their query, suggesting that “ecosystem engineering” caused the Ediacaran to disappear.</p> <p>“Ecosystem engineers are organisms that significantly alter their environment,” Laflamme says. “Clams, for instance, can filter a lot of bacteria and nutrients out of the water, which causes problems for other creatures that need those resources.&nbsp;</p> <p>“Something came in and shook up the Ediacaran system,” he adds. “We hypothesized that it had to do with the evolution of new life, and asked ourselves, ‘What happens when you introduce new biology to a system?’”</p> <p>The researchers found fossil evidence of new animals&nbsp;–&nbsp;worms and worm-like animals&nbsp;–&nbsp;burrowing into sediment on the ocean floor.</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <object height="300" width="400"><param name="flashvars" value="offsite=true&amp;lang=en-us&amp;page_show_url=%2Fphotos%2Futmmagazine%2Fsets%2F72157659017214362%2Fshow%2F&amp;page_show_back_url=%2Fphotos%2Futmmagazine%2Fsets%2F72157659017214362%2F&amp;set_id=72157659017214362&amp;jump_to="><param name="movie" value="https://www.flickr.com/apps/slideshow/show.swf?v=237555616"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><embed allowfullscreen="true" flashvars="offsite=true&amp;lang=en-us&amp;page_show_url=%2Fphotos%2Futmmagazine%2Fsets%2F72157659017214362%2Fshow%2F&amp;page_show_back_url=%2Fphotos%2Futmmagazine%2Fsets%2F72157659017214362%2F&amp;set_id=72157659017214362&amp;jump_to=" height="300" src="https://www.flickr.com/apps/slideshow/show.swf?v=237555616" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="400"></object> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>“We can see trails all over the place, showing evidence of different behaviours like burrowing, feeding and den building,” Laflamme says. “We documented how new populations of Ediacaran biota responded to the presence of things that we knew, for sure, were animal fossils.”</p> <p>“The new organisms would have disrupted the layer of bacteria along the sea floor that Ediacaran biota likely fed on,” Laflamme says. “It made it difficult for anything that didn’t move to survive.“</p> <p>Delicate and sedentary, the Ediacarans couldn’t move or adapt, leaving them vulnerable to the effects of emerging new animals that disturbed the ocean environment. Unable to compete with the new animals for ecosystem space for nutrients, for space on the sea floor, and for food and oxygen, the biota were edged out by animals who were better adapted to use the available resources.</p> <p>Laflamme’s research team included UTM graduate students <strong>Thomas Boag</strong> and <strong>Sara Mason</strong>. Funding was provided by Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History, NASA Astrobiology Institute, the Connaught Foundation, National Science and Engineering Research Council of Canada, National Science Foundation-Earth Sciences and the National Geographic Society.</p> <p><a href="http://www.cbc.ca/radio/quirks/quirks-quarks-for-sep-19-2015-1.3233930/the-extinction-of-the-ediacarans-1.3233961">Hear Marc Laflamme talk about his research on CBC Radio’s Quirks &amp; Quarks program</a>&nbsp;</p> <p><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/utmmagazine/sets/72157659017214362/show">See photos from the team's field research in Namibia&nbsp;</a></p> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-home-page-banner field--type-boolean field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">News home page banner</div> <div class="field__item">Off</div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-picpath field--type-string field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">picpath</div> <div class="field__item">sites/default/files/2015-10-01-fossil.jpg</div> </div> Thu, 01 Oct 2015 16:03:47 +0000 sgupta 7318 at Darwinius fossil: longer in the tooth than we thought? /news/darwinius-fossil-longer-tooth-we-thought <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">Darwinius fossil: longer in the tooth than we thought?</span> <span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"><span>sgupta</span></span> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"><time datetime="2015-09-14T13:15:30-04:00" title="Monday, September 14, 2015 - 13:15" class="datetime">Mon, 09/14/2015 - 13:15</time> </span> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-field-cutline-long field--type-text-long field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Cutline</div> <div class="field__item">“Our goal as paleontologists is to bring these animals back to life, ” says Associate Professor Mary Silcox (photo by Ken Jones)</div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-author-reporters field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/authors-reporters/don-campbell" hreflang="en">Don Campbell</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-author-legacy field--type-string field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Author legacy</div> <div class="field__item">Don Campbell</div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-story-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/top-stories" hreflang="en">Top Stories</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/paleontology" hreflang="en">Paleontology</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/fossils" hreflang="en">Fossils</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/utsc" hreflang="en">UTSC</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-subheadline field--type-string-long field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Subheadline</div> <div class="field__item">More like a lemur than a monkey when it comes to teeth, new model shows</div> </div> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p>A famous fossil of an early primate has more in common with modern lemurs than researchers previously thought based on how its teeth erupted, ߲ݴý researchers say.</p> <p>PhD student <strong>Sergi López-Torres</strong> and Associate Professors <strong>Mary Silcox</strong> and <strong>Michael Schillaci </strong>of U of T Scarborough developed a new model that re-examines the interpretation of Darwinius, the best preserved fossil primate known to exist.&nbsp;</p> <p>By looking at the sequence in which adult teeth come in – known as dental eruption – in primates, they found it had more in common with lemurs than squirrel monkeys, the model species used by the researchers who discovered Darwinius. Since Darwinius died before reaching adulthood, the fossil offers clues about the sequence in which its teeth erupted. &nbsp;&nbsp;</p> <p>“Every species has a particular pattern by which their teeth come in and this allows us to estimate the age of fossils that died before their adult teeth could emerge,” says López-Torres. “It seems that the pattern of dental eruption for Darwinius is more similar to that of lemurs than to that of monkeys.”</p> <p>Before looking at Darwinius, López-Torres did a large study of 97 living and fossil primates in order to get a clearer picture of how different species compare through patterns of dental development. He found that the three most primitive ancestors – the ancestor to lemurs and lorises, the ancestor to monkeys, apes, and tarsiers, and the ancestor to all primates – share the same eruption sequence with each other. That pattern shares some similarities with the dental eruption sequence found in Darwinius. &nbsp;&nbsp;</p> <p>“<img alt="head shot of PhD student" src="/sites/default/files/2015-09-14-Sergi_Lopez_Torres-%286-of-6%29.jpg" style="width: 225px; height: 338px; margin: 10px; float: left;">The major difference is we found that anthropoids (ancestors to monkeys, apes and humans) are characterized by a late eruption of the third molar, which is something Darwinius clearly doesn’t show,” says López-Torres (pictured at left). “One idea that still stands links Darwinius to anthropoids, but since it doesn’t show this late eruption, it looks more like a modern lemur.”&nbsp;</p> <p>Their model also suggests Darwinius was a little older at the time of death and would have weighed slightly less as an adult than the original estimates predicted.&nbsp;</p> <p>The team that originally discovered Darwinius argued the 47-million-year-old fossil was more closely related to haplorrhines, the group that includes anthropoids (monkeys, apes, and humans) and tarsiers.</p> <p>Subsequent studies by the same group suggested Darwinius was specifically related to anthropoids, the primate lineage in which humans belong. But other researchers argue that Darwinius is more likely a strepsirrhine, meaning it belongs to the opposite branch of the primate family tree, closer to lemurs and lorises.</p> <p>“Our findings don’t entirely support the strepsirrhine hypothesis, but it’s certainly consistent with it,” says López-Torres. “We can say for certain it’s not consistent with the anthropoid hypothesis.” &nbsp;&nbsp;</p> <p>While the new model proposes only a slight change in adult weight and age at death – 622-642g and 1.05-1.14 years compared to original estimates of 650-900g and nine to&nbsp;10 months – the findings are significant in terms of figuring out what Darwinius was actually like.&nbsp;</p> <p>“It may seem trivial going from 9 or 10 months to a little over a year, but if you consider that, for example, some species of lemur can reproduce at a year old, this difference could mean a major change in what the life of this animal was like,” notes López-Torres.&nbsp;</p> <p>Silcox says: “Our goal as paleontologists is to bring these animals back to life. It’s the best preserved fossil primate. It even has stomach contents, so there’s a lot of potential for understanding its biology.&nbsp;</p> <p>“We want to be able to answer broader evolutionary questions, but we also need to have a nuanced view of what this particular animal was like.”&nbsp;</p> <p>The model is explained in a new research published online in the journal <em>Royal Society Open Science</em>.&nbsp;</p> <p><img alt="image of fossil" src="/sites/default/files/2015-09-14-Franzen-et-al-2009-%282%291a.jpg" style="width: 625px; height: 600px; margin: 10px 25px;"></p> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-home-page-banner field--type-boolean field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">News home page banner</div> <div class="field__item">Off</div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-picpath field--type-string field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">picpath</div> <div class="field__item">sites/default/files/2015-09-14-fossil.jpg</div> </div> Mon, 14 Sep 2015 17:15:30 +0000 sgupta 7274 at "Epic" fossil find: at least a dozen new species, thousands of specimens /news/epic-fossil-find-least-dozen-new-species-thousands-specimens <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">"Epic" fossil find: at least a dozen new species, thousands of specimens</span> <span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"><span>sgupta</span></span> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"><time datetime="2014-02-11T06:44:04-05:00" title="Tuesday, February 11, 2014 - 06:44" class="datetime">Tue, 02/11/2014 - 06:44</time> </span> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-field-cutline-long field--type-text-long field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Cutline</div> <div class="field__item">Jean-Bernard Caron at work in Yoho National Park (all photos by Professor Caron © ROM)</div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-topic field--type-entity-reference field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Topic</div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/topics/breaking-research" hreflang="en">Breaking Research</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-story-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/fossils" hreflang="en">Fossils</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/faculty-arts-science" hreflang="en">Faculty of Arts &amp; Science</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/research" hreflang="en">Research</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/global" hreflang="en">Global</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/paleontology" hreflang="en">Paleontology</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/top-stories" hreflang="en">Top Stories</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-subheadline field--type-string-long field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Subheadline</div> <div class="field__item">U of T researcher leads international collaboration</div> </div> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p>Yoho National Park’s 505-million-year-old Burgess Shale –&nbsp;home to some of the planet’s earliest animals – is one of the world’s most important fossil sites.</p> <p>Now, more than a century after its discovery, a compelling sequel has been unearthed: 42 kilometres away in Kootenay National Park, a new Burgess Shale fossil site has been located that appears to equal the importance of the original discovery, and may one day even surpass it.</p> <p>The site, discovered in the summer of 2012 by an international research team led by ߲ݴý ecology and evolutionary biologist <strong>Jean-Bernard Caron</strong>, is described in a paper released today in <a href="http://www.nature.com/ncomms/index.html"><em>Nature Communications</em></a>.</p> <p>“This is an epic new chapter in a research story that began more than 100 years ago and there is no doubt in my mind that this new material will significantly increase our understanding of early animal evolution,” said Caron.</p> <p><img alt src="/sites/default/files/2014-02-11-burgess-new-arthropod.jpg" style="width: 325px; height: 217px; margin: 10px; float: right;">"The rate at which we are finding animals — many of which are new — is astonishing, and there is a significant possibility that we’ll eventually find more species here than at the original Yoho site, and potentially more than from anywhere else in the world.”</p> <p>(Pictured at right: new arthropod.)</p> <p>Protected by Parks Canada, the exact location of the new site remains confidential to protect its integrity though future visitor opportunities have not been ruled out.</p> <p>“We were already aware of the presence of some Burgess Shale fossils in Kootenay National Park,” said research team member Robert Gaines of Pomona College. “We had a hunch that if we followed the formation along the mountain topography into new areas with the right rock types, maybe, just maybe, we would get lucky – though we never in our wildest dreams thought we’d track down a motherlode like this. It didn’t take us very long at all to realize that we had dug up something special.</p> <p>"To me, the Burgess Shale is a grand tale in every way imaginable, and we are incredibly proud to be part of this new chapter and to keep the story alive and thriving in everyone’s imagination.”</p> <p>The team, some of whom are pictured below, plans to return to the site this summer.</p> <p><img alt src="/sites/default/files/2014-02-11-mountains-researchers-burgess.jpg" style="width: 620px; height: 200px; margin: 3px 25px;"></p> <p>"We know that we have barely scratched the site and nonetheless found at least 12 new species to describe,” said <strong>Cédric Aria</strong>, a PhD student in U of T's Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology. “What awaits us there, only the mountain knows, but chances are high that the discoveries will fuel a lot more research. The full potential of these new fossil beds has yet to be revealed.”</p> <p>Approximately 200 animal species had been identified at the original Yoho site in over 600 field days. In just 15 days of field collecting, 50 animal species have already been unearthed at the new Kootenay site.</p> <p>Other members of the research team are Gabriela Mángano of the University of Saskatchewan and Michael Streng of Uppsala University.</p> <p>Learn more about the <a href="http://burgess-shale.rom.on.ca/">Burgess Shale</a>.</p> <p><br> <iframe allowfullscreen frameborder="0" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/ohnslVidjP0" width="560"></iframe></p> <p>With files from Parks Canada, Pomona College, the Royal Ontario Museum, the University of Saskatchewan and Uppsala University.</p> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-home-page-banner field--type-boolean field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">News home page banner</div> <div class="field__item">Off</div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-picpath field--type-string field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">picpath</div> <div class="field__item">sites/default/files/2014-02-11-burgess-shale-researcher-notebook.jpg</div> </div> Tue, 11 Feb 2014 11:44:04 +0000 sgupta 5873 at