Adelophthalmus pyrrhae: A new species of Eurypterid 'Sea Scorpion' from the Carboniferous of Montagne Noire, France, which may have been capable of breathing air.
[sciencythoughts.blogspot.com]
Arachnids are the second most successful terrestrial animal group after Insects and were one of the first Arthropod clades to successfully invade land. Fossil evidence for this transition is limited, with the majority of Arachnid clades first appearing in the terrestrial fossil record. Furthermore, molecular clock dating has suggested a Cambrian-Ordovician terrestrialization event for Arachnids, some 60million years before their first fossils in the Silurian, although these estimates assume that Arachnids evolved from a fully aquatic ancestor. Eurypterids or 'Sea Scorpions', the sister clade to terrestrial Arachnids, are known to have undergone major macroecological shifts in transitioning from marine to freshwater environments during the Devonian. Discoveries of apparently subaerial eurypterid trackways have led to the suggestion that Eurypterids were even able to venture on land and possibly breathe air. However, modern Horseshoe Crabs undertake amphibious excursions onto land to reproduce, rendering trace fossil evidence alone inconclusive.
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Posted by JoeBKite-like structures in the western Sahara Desert.
Posted by TriphidAn Aussie Indigenous Message Stick.
Posted by TriphidIndigenous Australian Aboriginal Rock art dated somewhere between 20 and 30 thousand years old.
Posted by TriphidIndigenous Australian Aboriginal Rock art dated somewhere between 20 and 30 thousand years old.
Posted by TriphidIndigenous Australian Aboriginal Rock art dated somewhere between 20 and 30 thousand years old.
Posted by TriphidIndigenous Australian Aboriginal Rock art dated somewhere between 20 and 30 thousand years old.
Posted by JoeBDortoka vremiri: A new species of Dortokid Turtle from the Late Cretaceous of the Hațeg Basin, Romania.
Posted by JoeBThe Cabeço da Amoreira burial: An Early Modern Era West African buried in a Mesolithic shell midden in Portugal.
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Posted by JoeBTorosaurus in Canada.
Posted by JoeBStone tools from the Borselan Rock Shelter, in the Binalud Mountains of northeastern Iran.
Posted by JoeBDating the Lantian Biota.
Posted by JoeBBashanosaurus primitivus: A new species of Stegosaur from the Middle Jurassic of Chongqing Municipality, China.
Posted by JoeBDetermining the time of year when the Chicxulub Impactor fell.
Posted by JoeBSão Tomé and Príncipe: Possibly the last country on Earth never to have been visited by a working archaeologist.
Posted by JoeBMambawakale ruhuhu: A new species of Pseudosuchian Archosaur from the Middle Triassic Manda Beds of Tanzania.