Posted on 01/29/2024 10:00:50 PM PST by SunkenCiv
Researchers have identified a 3D fragment of fossilized skin that is at least 21 million years than previously described skin fossils. The skin, which belonged to an early species of Paleozoic reptile, has a pebbled surface and most closely resembles crocodile skin. It's the oldest example of preserved epidermis, the outermost layer of skin in terrestrial reptiles, birds, and mammals, which was an important evolutionary adaptation in the transition to life on land. The fossil is described on January 11 in the journal Current Biology along with several other specimens that were collected from the Richards Spur limestone cave system in Oklahoma...
Skin and other soft tissues are rarely fossilized, but the researchers think that skin preservation was possible in this case because of the cave system's unique features, which included fine clay sediments that slowed decomposition, oil seepage, and a cave environment that was likely an oxygenless environment...
The skin fossil is tiny -- smaller than a fingernail. Microscopic examination undertaken by coauthor Tea Maho of the University of Toronto Mississauga revealed epidermal tissues, a hallmark of the skin of amniotes, the terrestrial vertebrate group that includes reptiles, birds, and mammals and which evolved from amphibian ancestors during the Carboniferous Period. "We were totally shocked by what we saw because it's completely unlike anything we would have expected," says Mooney. "Finding such an old skin fossil is an exceptional opportunity to peer into the past and see what the skin of some of these earliest animals may have looked like."
(Excerpt) Read more at sciencedaily.com ...
The real culprit in a 19th century dinosaur whodunit is finally revealed
9 Jan 2024 - 10 Jan 2024
Science News
https://www.sciencenews.org/article/dinosaur-paleontology-central-park
https://web.archive.org/web/20240109133740/https://www.sciencenews.org/article/dinosaur-paleontology-central-park
I saw the headline, and my first thought was Nancy Pelosi. for some bizarre reason.
Understandable.
She’s wrinkled. Her face before skin?
From the first Stones concert.
Keith Richards dad no doubt. longevity under the most adverse of condition runs in the family. suggesting a DNA match.
...even after 21 million years.
They should have taken the time to tell us how old the specimen was.
The tail end of the coal age.
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