• Bizarre Creature Found in 200-Million-Year-Old Cocoon
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[quote="http://news.discovery.com/animals/bizarre-creature-found-in-200-million-year-old-cocoon-121208.html"] About 200 million years ago, a leech released a slimy mucous cocoon that unwittingly encased and trapped a bizarre animal with a springy tail, preserving it until researchers discovered the teardrop-shaped creature in Antarctica recently. The cocoon looks like those produced by living leeches, such as the medicinal leech Hirudo medicinalis. Encased inside was a bell animal that looked similar to species in the genus Vorticella; its body extends 25 microns (about the width of some human hairs) with a tightly coiled stalk about twice that long. And like all eurkaryotes, the organism was equipped with a nucleus -- in this case, a large horseshoe-shaped nucleus inside the main body. (A micron is one-millionth of a meter.) BLOG: Leech With Enormous Teeth Discovered This bell animal lived during the Late Triassic Period, when the Earth was much warmer, with dense rain forests flourishing along what is today the Transantarctic Mountain Range where it was found. At the time, Antarctica was part of the supercontinent Gondwana, though it was still located at high latitudes. VIDEO: The Giant Pacific Octopus Is Smarter Than You Think Past research has suggested this coiled stalk, which is used to attach to substrates, may be one of the fastest cellular engines known, changing from a telephone wire-like structure to a tight coil at a speed of about 8 centimeters (3.1 inches) per second -- the equivalent of a human being walking the across more than three football fields in one second. [See Photos of the Bizarre Vorticella Creature] Preserving soft tissue Possibly even more amazing is the fact that this soft-bodied, microscopic creature survived the vagaries of time. Preserving a soft-bodied organism like this one for so long is tricky and requires some outside intervention to keep the tissues from degrading. In this case, rather than tree resin (called amber when hardened) that preserved dino DNA in the bellies of amber-trapped mosquitoes in "Jurassic Park," a mucous cocoon did the trick. "This preservation is quite bizarre, but soft-bodied organisms cannot usually become fossilized unless they are rapidly entombed in a medium that prevents further decay," study researcher and paleobotanist Benjamin Bomfleur, of the Biodiversity Institute at the University of Kansas, told LiveScience. Here's how the researchers think the hasty preservation took place: "A leech secreted a mucous cocoon that was deposited under water or in wet leaf litter, somewhere in a river system which lay in present-day Antarctica," Bomfleur said. This bell animal must have used its long, rapidly contracting stalk to attach itself to the cocoon soon after, becoming trapped and completely encased by the still-slimy cocoon, which hardened over hours to days. "The cocoon with the such-enclosed bell animal then was deposited in mud that over time turned into the sedimentary layer where we found it some 200 million years later," Bomfleur explained. PHOTOS: Candid Cameras Reveal Animals in Peril The only other example of this type of preservation comes from a 125-million-year-old cocoon encasing a nematode worm and discovered in Svalbard. Identifying the bizarre creature When Bomfleur first noticed the tiny animal in samples he'd collected from Antarctica, he didn't know what he was looking at and didn't have time to consult with an expert in such microfossils, as he was working on his doctoral degree. "Later this year, however, I finally found the time to look for someone with an expertise on freshwater microorganisms in order to get an expert opinion on the thing," Bomfleur said, adding he contacted Ojvind Moestrup of the University of Copenhagen. Bomfleur recalled Moestrup looking at the fossil and saying, "It is often very hard or impossible to identify microfossils, but this one was easy. It is the ciliate Vorticella and the helical structure is the stalk." Bomfleur and his colleagues detailed their research this week in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. [img]http://blogs.discovery.com/.a/6a00d8341bf67c53ef017c346aff89970b-800wi[/img] Photo: About 200 million years ago, a leech released a slimy mucous cocoon that unwittingly encased and trapped a bizarre animal with a springy tail. Credit: Benjamin Bomfleur [/quote] Damn nature, you old.
[QUOTE=Zenreon117;38770062]Damn nature, you old.[/QUOTE] Mankind will leave a legacy on earth for much longer than 200 million years.
[QUOTE]in Antarctica [/QUOTE] fuck it wheres kurt russell and keith david
It's Bigfoot
[QUOTE=Angus725;38770221]Mankind will leave a legacy on earth for much longer than 200 million years.[/QUOTE] Are you a betting man?
[QUOTE=Ricenchicken;38770239]Are you a betting man?[/QUOTE] I bet you a million bucks that manking will leave a legacy for longer than 200million years
Grandpa?
[QUOTE=Stormcharger;38770330]I bet you a million bucks that manking will leave a legacy for longer than 200million years[/QUOTE] :toxx:
[QUOTE=Ricenchicken;38770239]Are you a betting man?[/QUOTE] We've already used millions of years worth of petroleum in the recent hundred years.
I wish the titled specified it was a tiny creature. I was expecting some sort of crazy John Carpenter creature.
Sounded like the setup to another Alien movie until I read the article.
[QUOTE=Griffster26;38770358][img]https://dl.dropbox.com/u/13239915/Internet%20Images/emot-toxx.gif[/img][/QUOTE] ftfy shame im too late for "The Thing" joke.
[QUOTE=Ricenchicken;38770239]Are you a betting man?[/QUOTE] Have fun explaining our cities in the geological makeup of the earth. Or even better, our dumps.
I wouldn't really call this an animal at all Unless animal refers to anything with more than one cell to it, even if it is literally an aomeba or something
adam from neon genesis evangelion holy shit it's happening [editline]9th December 2012[/editline] [quote] About 200 million years ago, a leech released a slimy mucous cocoon that unwittingly encased and trapped a bizarre animal with a springy tail, preserving it until researchers discovered the teardrop-shaped creature in Antarctica recently.[/quote] CONFIRMED
[QUOTE=SystemGS;38770938]adam from neon genesis evangelion holy shit it's happening [editline]9th December 2012[/editline] CONFIRMED[/QUOTE] Soon we'll discover the AT field and how to harness it.
[IMG]http://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20120229235242/evangelion/images/d/d5/Adam_(Embryo)_Card.png[/IMG] looks a bit similar if you look at it a certain way.
[QUOTE=Angus725;38770221]Mankind will leave a legacy on earth for much longer than 200 million years.[/QUOTE] Mankind master race.
[QUOTE=Angus725;38770221]Mankind will leave a legacy on earth for much longer than 200 million years.[/QUOTE] Buildings will crumble and destroy after 1000 years, structures will become mountains and landscapes will form over them - in 200 million years it's incredibly unlikely that anything we have produced today will exist any more. Unless you mean fossils, in which case, maybe.
[QUOTE=Angus725;38770221]Mankind will leave a legacy on earth for much longer than 200 million years.[/QUOTE] Life After People has taught me otherwise. [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RuPKjH4q9lk[/media] This is assuming we all just vanished for some reason that left the rest of the world untouched, though.
[QUOTE=Griffster26;38771264][IMG]http://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20120229235242/evangelion/images/d/d5/Adam_(Embryo)_Card.png[/IMG] looks a bit similar if you look at it a certain way.[/QUOTE] Don't even joke about that this month. :v:
[QUOTE=Drewsko;38771541]Life After People has taught me otherwise. [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RuPKjH4q9lk[/media] This is assuming we all just vanished for some reason that left the rest of the world untouched, though.[/QUOTE] At least the shit we left on the moon will last nearly forever whereas on Earth everything will erode due to weather and natural processes.
How long is it before Antarctica blows up now?
[QUOTE=Drewsko;38771541]Life After People has taught me otherwise. [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RuPKjH4q9lk[/media] This is assuming we all just vanished for some reason that left the rest of the world untouched, though.[/QUOTE] I wonder how long things like remote military bunkers will survive. They're basically reinforced manmade caves. They'd probably be among the last of our trace to completely dissolve.
[QUOTE=Stormcharger;38770330]I bet you a million bucks that [B]manking[/B] will leave a legacy for longer than 200million years[/QUOTE] ALL PRAISES TO THE GLORY OF THE MIGHTY MANKING!
[QUOTE=Drewsko;38771541]Life After People has taught me otherwise. [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RuPKjH4q9lk[/media] This is assuming we all just vanished for some reason that left the rest of the world untouched, though.[/QUOTE] If you ignore the cheesy-ness of this video it's incredibly beautiful. At least for me.
[QUOTE=Stormcharger;38770330]I bet you a million bucks that manking will leave a legacy for longer than 200million years[/QUOTE] Jokes on you because the earth is ending in 12 days.
[QUOTE=Paramud;38772936]Jokes on you because the earth is ending in 12 days.[/QUOTE] The mighty ManKing laughs in the face of your Mayan apocalypse.
[QUOTE=NuclearJesus;38772800]ALL PRAISES TO THE GLORY OF THE MIGHTY MANKING![/QUOTE]This could be my title if I wanted it to. [editline]9th December 2012[/editline] [QUOTE=Griffster26;38772393]How long is it before Antarctica blows up now?[/QUOTE]Well 12 days obviously
[QUOTE=Angus725;38770221]Mankind will leave a legacy on earth for much longer than 200 million years.[/QUOTE] 200 million years from now the only things that would be left by us on Earth would be eroded bits of concrete and metal underground that's nearly indistinguishable from the bedrock that's there from before. You'd have to look long and hard to find a real good legacy by mankind 200 million years from now, assuming we were to vanish today.
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