The Year’s Best Fossil Finds (good stuff & pics)

Fossils provide unparalleled peeks into Earth’s living history in the form of mineralized bones and shells, body imprints and even piles of poop. There always seems to be another twist and turn in evolution’s creations awaiting trowel-wielding scientists.

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Squashed Jurassic Spider

This almost perfectly preserved spider fossil from China dates back 165 million years ago, to the middle Jurassic era. Known as Eoplectreurys gertschi, the spiders are older than the only two other specimens known by around 120 million years and rival their detail, paleontologists said in February. Spider fossils are tough to find because their soft bodies don’t preserve well. Thanks to fine volcanic ash, however, this spider was squashed without breaking up its delicate exoskeleton.

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New Primate Relative

Two 1.9 million-year-old South African skeletons (discovered with some help from Google Earth) have added a new and intriguing member to the primate family. Dubbed Australopithecus sediba, the specimens have long legs and a protruding nose -- features common to Homo, the genus that eventually spawned humans. The creatures also had extra-long forearms and flexible feet. Paleontologists disagree over whether A. sediba is a direct human ancestor or just looks like one. In either case, the fossils provide a rare opportunity for examining a period shrouded in paleontological mystery.

Source: www.wired.com...

I found this story and it's another one that shows we don't have a clue to what occurred on this planet over the eons that it has been here.

There are some more pics and info at the story link. Very nice to see and to know that there are people acutally finding this stuff and reporting it so nicely.

I hope you enjoy it as much as I did. Take care.

Cant tell from the pic but how big is that spider??

excellent post loved the one about the snake!

I think the spider looks like one of these!

Doesn't look like the spider was big at all. Here's an scale drawing from the initial findings report.

reply to post by badmoviefan


So it was a typical sized spider then

Originally posted by cj6
reply to post by badmoviefan

 

So it was a typical sized spider then

Yup, just your average sized 165 million old spider fossil. Nothing to see here

I know, I know, it would have been great if this thing were the size of a small dog. Sadly insects have never been a lot bigger than they are now. I believe when the O2 levels on the earth were higher, they were slightly larger but not person sized or anything.

reply to post by iamcamouflage


I still can't understand Earth 65 million years ago and so. Really. Everything was, at least, big, at that time.

Imagine for a moment that, yes, the cliched scene of going back to the dinosaur era happens. But everything is different when you see reality with your own eyes. Jurassic Park gives a great perspective, but it would be nothing compared to living it in your own body.

It had to be a beautiful place fullfilled of beautiful and amazing creatures with unseen behaviours in nature.

Originally posted by iamcamouflage
...
I know, I know, it would have been great if this thing were the size of a small dog. Sadly insects have never been a lot bigger than they are now. I believe when the O2 levels on the earth were higher, they were slightly larger but not person sized or anything.

Actually that's not 100% accurate. Bugs from years gone by were gigantic...

The discovery in 390-million-year-old rocks also suggests that spiders, insects, crabs and similar creatures were much larger in the past than previously thought, said Simon Braddy, a paleontologist from the University of Bristol and one of the study's three authors.

Source

The strip coal mine has also yielded fossils of two rare arachnids, a giant centipede-like insect measuring about 60 inches long (150 centimeters) and 12 inches wide (30 centimeters), and a new genus and species of gerarid insect.

Source

It is however true that the size of bugs = oxygen levels...

The Paleozoic period, about 300 million years ago, was a time of huge and abundant plant life and rather large insects -- dragonflies had two-and-a-half-foot wing spans, for example. The air's oxygen content was 35% during this period, compared to the 21% we breathe now, Kaiser said. Researchers have speculated that the higher oxygen concentration allowed insects to grow much bigger.

Source

Maybe the fossil of the spider above was a teeny baby spider which had a leg span of 6 feet when it reached adulthood?

The planet can stick its higher oxygen content if bugs really do get any bigger under those conditions. Nooo thankyou!

Those five feet tall penguins sound awesome though. The eggs would have been huge.

reply to post by Gaspode


If we had insects this large today, I guarantee we would be eating them. You would have restaurants that served them up BBQ style I'm sure.