Posted on 05/31/2019 5:37:16 PM PDT by ETL
There's room for all types in a newly described fossil that shows 259 baby fish swimming together in a school, approximately 50 million years ago.
According to the authors of a new study published Wednesday (May 29) in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B, this ex-school may be the earliest known fossil evidence that prehistoric fish swam in unison, just as modern fish do today.
A team of Arizona researchers stumbled upon this remarkable rock during a visit to the Oishi Fossils Gallery of Mizuta Memorial Museum in Japan.
Working with the museum, the researchers determined that the fishy fossil probably originated in America's Green River Formation, a geologic stratum in present-day Colorado, Wyoming and Utah that contains a trove of fossils dating to between 53 million and 48 million years ago.
The fish in question all belonged to the extinct species Erismatopterus levatus, and were apparently entombed together in the midst of a routine swim that may have been cut short by an underwater avalanche of sand, the researchers wrote.
All but two of the wee specimens were swimming in the same direction and in a close-knit formation.
To prove that the fish were indeed swimming in a school and not just fossilized that way by coincidence, the researchers ran a series of simulations to reproduce the group's likely movements.
The simulations showed that the fish were apparently not only swimming in unison, but also did so according to a timeless set of behavioral rules that still show up today.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
Gotta at least partially blame phony global warming “science” for this general distrust of ANYTHING scientific. At least in the minds of those with little education in the (legit) sciences.
Cuttin’ class to play hooky.
“ I know a shortcut, follow me!”
That's sometimes the pretext, or alibi, but trolling is just stupidity rooted in, well, stupidity.
That's sometimes the pretext, or alibi, but trolling is just stupidity rooted in, well, stupidity.
Gotta at least partially blame phony global warming “science” for this general distrust of ANYTHING scientific. At least in the minds of those with little education in the (legit) sciences.
What amazed me is how people can soak in a civilization that is powered by the scientific method, yet go into denial when it bumps up against beliefs of their ancestors.
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