Every fossil hunter hopes they'll stumble across a dinosaur skeleton... but the relics of prehistoric Earth come in many forms. Let's take a look at...
Mammoth Jerky and Moa Claws
The beast is in remarkable shape - a sample taken from the left side of the head was covered in hair (including a mullet like 'do) but the real treasure was hidden in the inside. The cells had been preserved intact, and thus had protected the chromosomes (genetic material) contained within. This let researchers reconstruct the genome of the woolly mammoth - which potentially opens up the possibility of making an artificial mammoth.
Researchers believe that the corpse survived so well thanks to it being freeze-dried into mammoth jerky. They actually ran a number of tests on beef jerky, finding that it could be easily shattered but the genetic material in the beef remained intact.
Mammoth flesh isn't the only thing to have survived the ages. Hidden away in a New Zealand mountain cave lay a fragment of 3,300 year old mummified flesh, just waiting to be discovered by an explorer. Rather than being a human mummy, this was the preserved claw of a moa - a type of extinct flightless bird. DNA in the claw was preserved well enough to extract and map a genome of the ambling avian - perhaps it could be implanted into an ostrich egg!
The remains showed little damage from stomach acids, which suggests the ichthyosaur died shortly after eating. Researchers suggest that a neck injury endured while killing or trying to swallow the meal may have killed the hungry reptile!
Another fossil illustrates a food chain in gruesome detail. The fossil of a belemnite (squid-like cephalopod) was found clutching the exoskeleton of a crustacean on which it was feeding. In a bit of a twist, the fossilized proto-squid was missing most of its body... meaning that another marine predator (possibly a shark or ichthyosaur) had bitten into it mid-meal!
Odaraia alata seems to have swum upside down, folding a wide body up to make a taco shape. Thirty or more sets of intricate legs (each split into multi-spiked segments) formed a barbed net, allowing the creature to capture anything foolish enough to get close. This feeding method also allowed it to leave the ocean floor, since it was able to "fish" rather than just pick up what it found on the seabed.
This 20cm long arthropod also possessed mandibles to snack on captured prey - making it one of the earliest "mandibulates." Modern day relatives include crustaceans, centipedes and mosquitoes!
The Dino-Tail in AmberInsects are often found caught in amber, the fossilized resin of trees. These perfectly preserved critters can offer great insight into life millennia ago, but a sample of amber from Myanmar has them outdone. Cut and polished for jewelry, what the seller thought was a frond of plant material turned out to be the tail of a diminutive feathered dinosaur.
The anatomy of the sample is different to that of a bird, but researchers were able to spot a brownish top and creamy underside. The creature would have been about the size of a sparrow, living 99 million years ago.
The sample actually shows signs of having fluids present when the resin set. This means that the dinosaur was only recently dead when trapped - or possibly even alive, unable to drag its tail free from the hardening fluid.
Found in the siderite-rich Mazon Creek, Illinois, the body of the horseshoe crab was rapidly encased by minerals. The brain did still slowly rot, but the resulting gap was filled by kaolinite, a white clay that stood out sharply from the siderite. The end result was a stark white cast of the brain, clearly visible on the horseshoe crab fossil.
Modern horseshoe crabs are an arachnid living fossil, related more closely to scorpions and spiders than crabs. We knew almost nothing about the brains of ancient horseshoe crabs until now. This particular specimen dates back 310 million years, making it a truly ancient brain.
The predatory velociraptor has a hind claw driven into the neck of the victim, fairly close to the blood supply to the brain. Not going down without a fight, the protoceratops has grabbed the right arm of the attacker, breaking bones with a powerful bite. Both seem to have perished mid-battle in a sand-slide, buried alive.
In another case, a pair of dueling mammoths were found in Nebraska. The two animals were clearly mid combat (one actually had a tusk stuck in the eye-socket of the other) probably in a competition for mates. Fairly evenly matched and locking tusks, the two fell in combat against each other. Whether they died of exhaustion or injuries, the ice-age mammoths remained that way until being uncovered in 1962.
- Mammoth jerky and moa claws
- Immortalized last meals
- The carnivorous taco
- The dino-tail in amber
- A crab with rock for brains
- Dueling for eternity
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| Ice can keep ancient bodies preserved... (Miller_Eszter) |
Mammoth Jerky and Moa Claws
The word "fossil" comes from Latin and basically means "dug up." They're usually formed from the hard parts of an organism (such as shells, bones, scales and claws) but that's not always the case - sometimes ancient remains can be found in permafrost, where they've spent millennia in a deep freeze. This is precisely what happened to a female mammoth, preserved beneath the Siberian ice for 52,000 years.
The beast is in remarkable shape - a sample taken from the left side of the head was covered in hair (including a mullet like 'do) but the real treasure was hidden in the inside. The cells had been preserved intact, and thus had protected the chromosomes (genetic material) contained within. This let researchers reconstruct the genome of the woolly mammoth - which potentially opens up the possibility of making an artificial mammoth.
Researchers believe that the corpse survived so well thanks to it being freeze-dried into mammoth jerky. They actually ran a number of tests on beef jerky, finding that it could be easily shattered but the genetic material in the beef remained intact.
Mammoth flesh isn't the only thing to have survived the ages. Hidden away in a New Zealand mountain cave lay a fragment of 3,300 year old mummified flesh, just waiting to be discovered by an explorer. Rather than being a human mummy, this was the preserved claw of a moa - a type of extinct flightless bird. DNA in the claw was preserved well enough to extract and map a genome of the ambling avian - perhaps it could be implanted into an ostrich egg!
Immortalized Last Meals
The ichthyosaurs were marine predators, reptiles not unlike a dolphin. One fossilized example reached 5m long - and in a case of "eyes bigger than belly" contained the torso of a 4m long thalattosaur.The remains showed little damage from stomach acids, which suggests the ichthyosaur died shortly after eating. Researchers suggest that a neck injury endured while killing or trying to swallow the meal may have killed the hungry reptile!
Another fossil illustrates a food chain in gruesome detail. The fossil of a belemnite (squid-like cephalopod) was found clutching the exoskeleton of a crustacean on which it was feeding. In a bit of a twist, the fossilized proto-squid was missing most of its body... meaning that another marine predator (possibly a shark or ichthyosaur) had bitten into it mid-meal!
The Carnivorous Taco
In the Cambrian explosion 505 million years ago, an alien-looking creature hunted the depths. Sadly, the alien in question must have been from early Star-Trek, as it resembled a floating taco.Odaraia alata seems to have swum upside down, folding a wide body up to make a taco shape. Thirty or more sets of intricate legs (each split into multi-spiked segments) formed a barbed net, allowing the creature to capture anything foolish enough to get close. This feeding method also allowed it to leave the ocean floor, since it was able to "fish" rather than just pick up what it found on the seabed.
This 20cm long arthropod also possessed mandibles to snack on captured prey - making it one of the earliest "mandibulates." Modern day relatives include crustaceans, centipedes and mosquitoes!
 |
| Jurassic park may have been on to something... (Hans) |
The Dino-Tail in AmberInsects are often found caught in amber, the fossilized resin of trees. These perfectly preserved critters can offer great insight into life millennia ago, but a sample of amber from Myanmar has them outdone. Cut and polished for jewelry, what the seller thought was a frond of plant material turned out to be the tail of a diminutive feathered dinosaur.
The anatomy of the sample is different to that of a bird, but researchers were able to spot a brownish top and creamy underside. The creature would have been about the size of a sparrow, living 99 million years ago.
The sample actually shows signs of having fluids present when the resin set. This means that the dinosaur was only recently dead when trapped - or possibly even alive, unable to drag its tail free from the hardening fluid.
A Crab With Rock for Brains
Brains are made of some of the softest tissues in the body - which makes the discovery of a fossilized horseshoe crab brain remarkable.Found in the siderite-rich Mazon Creek, Illinois, the body of the horseshoe crab was rapidly encased by minerals. The brain did still slowly rot, but the resulting gap was filled by kaolinite, a white clay that stood out sharply from the siderite. The end result was a stark white cast of the brain, clearly visible on the horseshoe crab fossil.
Modern horseshoe crabs are an arachnid living fossil, related more closely to scorpions and spiders than crabs. We knew almost nothing about the brains of ancient horseshoe crabs until now. This particular specimen dates back 310 million years, making it a truly ancient brain.
Dueling for Eternity
Sometimes a fossil captures more than a corpse. One such tableau was found in the Gobi Desert, featuring a velociraptor and protoceratops locked in mortal combat for eternity.The predatory velociraptor has a hind claw driven into the neck of the victim, fairly close to the blood supply to the brain. Not going down without a fight, the protoceratops has grabbed the right arm of the attacker, breaking bones with a powerful bite. Both seem to have perished mid-battle in a sand-slide, buried alive.
In another case, a pair of dueling mammoths were found in Nebraska. The two animals were clearly mid combat (one actually had a tusk stuck in the eye-socket of the other) probably in a competition for mates. Fairly evenly matched and locking tusks, the two fell in combat against each other. Whether they died of exhaustion or injuries, the ice-age mammoths remained that way until being uncovered in 1962.
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