The folks of Glasgow have been recognised as a brand new species of prehistoric crustacean has been named of their honour. The newly described taxon has been named Tealliocaris weegie. The small however strong shrimp was a part of a marine ecosystem that thrived in what was to finally turn into Scotland over 330 million years in the past. The scientific paper describing this “wee beastie” was printed within the Royal Society of Edinburgh’s journal Earth and Environmental Science Transactions.
The Tealliocaris weegie fossil. Image credit score: The Hunterian/College of Glasgow.
Tealliocaris weegie
This little shrimp was preserved in shale, the remnants of an historical Carboniferous seabed. The fossil comes from the world-famous web site from which the Bearsden Shark (Akmonistion zangerii) was excavated within the early Eighties.
To learn an article from 2015 on the Bearsden Shark: Uncommon Scottish Prehistoric Shark is Honoured.
Each the Bearsden Shark specimen and an instance of the Tealliocaris weegie shrimp fossil could be seen on show at The Hunterian, College of Glasgow.
The Glaswegian shrimp was initially regarded as a variant of one other species however is now recognized to belong to a distinct genus, which meant it warranted its personal scientific identify. The authors of the paper (Dr Neil Clark and Dr Andrew Ross) thought that it might be applicable to call the brand new species in honour of the folks of Higher Glasgow and within the native dialect.
Dr Neil Clark Curator of Palaeontology on the Hunterian College of Glasgow. Image credit score; The Hunterian/College of Glasgow.
Dr Neil Clark, Curator of Palaeontology at The Hunterian, defined:
“It’s fairly uncommon that any fossil is recognised as a brand new species and significantly the fossilised stays of a shrimp. I’m particularly proud, as a Glaswegian myself, that we had been in a position to identify a fossil shrimp Tealliocaris weegie. Named after the folks of Glasgow, this should certainly be one of many oldest ‘Weegies’ at over 330 million years outdated.”
Professor Rob Ellam FRSE, Emeritus Professor on the College of Glasgow and Editor of the Transactions journal added:
“This new species of fossil crustacean is principally a tiny fossil model of what we eat as scampi at present. This paper goes to indicate that there’s nonetheless nice science to be completed with fossils that may be found on our personal doorstep. Furthermore, naming one of many new species Tealliocaris weegie reveals that there’s nonetheless room within the severe world {of professional} palaeontology and scientific publishing for a welcome little bit of light-hearted Glaswegian banter.”
Professor Rob Ellam. Image credit score: The Hunterian/College of Glasgow.
An Exceptionally Uncommon Type of Fossil Preservation
These prehistoric shrimps, fish, sharks, and different animals lived in an equatorial lagoon when Scotland straddled the equator through the Carboniferous. The distinctive preservation means that the underside of the lagoon was anoxic (low in oxygen) thus stopping scavengers from destroying the stays and permitting the fossils to stay intact by way of the hundreds of thousands of years earlier than being excavated. Bacterial decay of the shrimps in anoxic circumstances has promoted the alternative of the gentle tissues by calcium phosphate. This very uncommon type of preservation could be present in deposits often called Konservat Lagerstätte. This can be a German time period used to explain a extremely fossiliferous deposit with distinctive specimen preservation.
Co-author Dr Andre Ross, the Principal Curator of Palaeobiology at Nationwide Museums Scotland said:
“This new species of crustacean, together with others collected just lately from the Scottish Borders, now within the collections of Nationwide Museums Scotland, add to our information of life at the start of the Carboniferous, 350-330 million years in the past, when back-boned animals had been beginning to colonise the land.”
Co-author of the scientific paper Dr Andrew Ross Principal Curator of Palaeontology at Nationwide Museums Scotland. Image credit score: Phil Wilkinson.
The Bearsden web site and different close by places are extraordinarily essential to palaeontologists. The preservation of specimens is exceptional. In some fossils, the muscle tissues and blood vessels could be noticed within the partially decayed our bodies of the crustaceans on account of being preserved in phosphates.
Every little thing Dinosaur acknowledges the help of a media launch from The Hunterian Museum (Scotland) within the compilation of this text.
The scientific paper: “Caridoid crustaceans from the Ballagan Formation (Tournaisian, Decrease Carboniferous) of Willie’s Gap, Chirnside, Scottish Borders, UK” by Neil D. L. Clark and Andrew J. Ross printed within the Royal Society of Edinburgh’s journal Earth and Environmental Science Transactions.
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