Experts claim to find preserved skin tissue on a 2 MILLION-year-old fossil - that would be the oldest in the world folks

Have scientists unearthed the world's oldest human SKIN? Preserved tissue found on a 2 MILLION-year-old fossil, expert claims
-South African anthropologists believe they have found preserved skin that belonged to an early human species known as Australopithecus sediba
-It could be the oldest soft tissue ever found for an early human species
-Scientists say they also discovered food particles in the teeth of the fossils
-The fossils were discovered in Malapa Nature Reserve near Johannesburg
By RICHARD GRAY FOR MAILONLINE
May 8, 2015

[Fossilized] skin belonging to a prehistoric human ancestor that lived two million years ago is thought to have been discovered among the remains of six skeletons.

Anthropologists believe they have found the preserved skin tissue of an early human species known as Australopithecus sediba in an ancient cave near Johannesburg, in South Africa. It could be the oldest example of human soft tissue to ever be found and is set to reveal new details about what this now extinct species of human was like.


Thin layers of 'organic' material thought to be skin was found attacked to the cement like rock from which this skull Australopithecus sediba was removed by anthropologists at the Malapa site in South Africa (credit AFP/Getty)

Scientists who have been leading the excavation, which began with the discovery of the remains of a 4ft 2 inch tall male juvenile in 2008, believe they have also found the remains of the ancient humans' last meals still preserved in their teeth. They say seeds and other food particles that became stuck in the creatures' teeth have been preserved.

Professor Lee Berger, an anthropologist at the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, who has been leading the excavation, said: 'We found out this wasn't just a normal type of rock that they were contained in - it was a rock that was preserving organic material.

'Plant remains are captured in it - seeds, things like that - even food particulates that are captured in the teeth, so we can see what they were eating. 'Maybe more remarkably, we think we've found fossil skin here too.'

Professor Berger, who made his comments in an interview with the Naked Scientists, discovered the first remains of Australopithecus sediba in 2008 after his son Matthew stumbled upon a [sic] fossilised bone in the Malapa Nature Reserve near Johannesburg.

They later excavated an almost complete skull, together with shoulder bones, a hand, wrist bones and ankle bones. Professor Berger announced the discovery to the world in 2010.
He described the early human as a new species that he called Australopithecus sediba and is thought to be a transitional species between earlier Australopithecus species and early Homo species...

[...]

AUSTRALOPITHECUS SEDIBA - A PIGEON-TOED CLIMBER
Research on the fossils of Australopithecus sediba have given an unprecidented insight into what these early human ancestors were like.

The fossils, which were studied by scientists across the world, show a mixture of primitive features and of more advanced features typical of later human species.

It has a narrow upper rib cage while the modern human's thorax is uniformly cylindrical. The cone-shaped rib cage allowed the early hominin to move its shoulder blades so it could climb trees. However, this prevented A. sediba from swinging its arms, meaning that walking and running was much more difficult. It had a slim waist similar to modern humans but feet which turned sharply inwards.

A. sediba had the same number of lumbar vertebrae as a modern man and a similar curvature of the lower back. However, its back was longer and more flexible than that of modern humans.
They had longer arms than we do with curved fingers, which would have made them adept at climbing.


Australopithecus sediba is thought to have lived in South Africa around 1.9 million to 2 million years ago at around the same time as other early humans were evolving across the African continent (Credit: Leo Delauncey/MailOnline)

The researchers also hope to find out whether, if it is soft tissue, it had been dried or soaked in water as it was preserved in the rock.

The remains of plants and insects have also been found preserved in the cement-like breccia alongside the skeletons.

It is thought that sediment in the bottom of a pool of water may have helped to protect the organic material from bacteria that would have caused them to rot and break down.
Professor Berger and his team are now trying to create a live laboratory on top of the site so they can continue working on the fossils while they are still in the ground without damaging them.

The laboratory will also have a platform that will allow members of the public to look down into the site where the remains are being excavated...

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100 million year-old oyster discovered

The 100-million-year-old oyster, ten times normal size, which will undergo MRI scan to see if it contains the world's biggest pearl
By EDDIE WRENN
DAILY MAIL
June 5, 2012

A gigantic oyster fossil that was accidentally trawled up by fishermen is to be MRI-scanned to see if it contains an enormous pearl.

The prehistoric mollusc is more than 100million years old and is ten times bigger than a regular oyster shell.

It was hauled up in the Solent and found in the nets of the trawler boat when it returned to port.
After layers of mud were washed off, it was clear the item was a huge fossilised shell that measured seven inches wide and three inches thick.

Bigger on the inside: Aquarist Jenna MacFarlane from the Blue Reef Aquarium holds the gigantic oyster could it contain the world's biggest pearl. Image credit: BNPS.CO.UK

A shell of this size could be concealing a pearl the size of a golf ball, dwarfing the average 7mm diametre size of an oyster pearl.

Such a gem would be worth thousands and thousands of pounds.

The oyster has been given to the Blue Reef Aquarium in Portsmouth, Hampshire, where experts there have managed to date it by studying its growth rings, much like a tree.

They are now waiting to have it MRI scanned to see if it holds the rare gem.

Overgrown: The Jurassic monster is displayed next to a normal oyster. The prehistoric mollusc is more than 100million years old. Image credit: BNPS.CO.UK

Open the box to reveal... A pearl in an oyster shell

A spokesman from the Blue Reef Aquarium said: 'It was discovered in the nets of a fishing boat which was dredging here in the Solent.

'When the fishermen came back to port they thought it was real, but when they picked it up, cleaned it, and had a closer look they could tell it was a fossil.

'It had completely turned to stone.

'A member of the public called and informed us it was on display at a local fishmongers so we called them and they gave it to us to have in the aquarium.

'Oysters can be aged by annual growth rings on their shells and we have counted more than 200 rings on this oyster making it an extremely long-lived individual.

'It's obviously a million-to-one chance that it would contain anything but, if you were to go purely on the dimensions of the shell then you'd be looking at a golf ball-sized pearl.

'We are hoping to have it MRI scanned in the near future to see if it is concealing something.'

Possibly, the oldest living animal life discovered on Earth

Sponge fossils from Namibia are the oldest animal life ever found on Earth, say researchers
By ROB WAUGH
DailyMail
Last updated at 12:13 PM on 7th February 2012


- Tiny vase-like sponges 'our ancestor' say researchers
- Found in 760 million year old rocks
- Animals emerged 100 million years earlier than thought

Etosha National Game Park: the tiny fossils
unearthed in the park are the world`s oldest
animal life, says researchers, dating to
760 million years ago. Credit: DailyMail

Sponge-like fossils unearthed in rocks in a national park in Namibia are the world's oldest animal life, say researchers. 

The find in Etosha National Park proves that sponges are the earliest forms of animal life, say the researchers.

The fossils were found in rocks between 760 million and 550 million years old. 

They are tiny speck-sized, vase-shaped creatures. 

The researchers analysed thousands of the fossils using X-rays and scanning electron microscopes. 

The discovery places the emergence of animals 100 to 150 million years earlier than scientists had previously thought.

The scientists describe the fossils as our 'great-great-great-great-great-great-great grandmother'.

Scientists had predicted that the earliest life would take the form of sponges. Earlier fossil finds in Australia had seemed to confirm this.

'If one looks at the family tree and projects this backward to where you have what's called the stem group, the ancestor of all animals, then yes, this would be our great-great-great-great-great-great-great grandmother,' says researcher Tony Prave of the University of St Andrews. 

The researchers scanned more than 1,000 of the tiny fossils, credit: DailyMail

(Left) Scanning electron microscope images of the tiny fossils, credit: DailyMail

'The aspect of this that's rather satisfying, at least intellectually, is that it is in broad agreement with what geneticists would tell us based on looking at molecular clocks when we should see the first advent of large multi-cellular life forms.' 

'This proves that the early lineages of animals go back considerably further in time,' say the researchers.

'The age of the fossils age places the advent of animals some 100 to 150million years earlier than proposed, and prior to the extreme climatic changes of Ediacaran time,' say the researchers. '

These findings support the predictions based on genetic sequencing and inferences drawn from biomarkers that the first animals were sponges.

500 million year old 'Tulip' creature discovered

Unusual 'Tulip' Creature Discovered: Lived in the Ocean More Than 500 Million Years Ago Science Daily(Jan 18, 2012)
Original article: 
University of Toronto/Royal Ontario Museum scientists discover unusual 'tulip' creature University of Toronto, (Jan 18, 2012)

Cluster of four specimens of Siphusauctum gregarium. Scale = 10 mm. (Credit: © Royal Ontario Museum); Science Daily

ScienceDaily (Jan. 18, 2012) — A bizarre creature that lived in the ocean more than 500-million years ago has emerged from the famous Middle Cambrian Burgess Shale in the Canadian Rockies.

Officially named Siphusauctum gregarium, fossils reveal a tulip-shaped creature that is about the length of a dinner knife (approximately 20 centimetres) and has a unique filter feeding system.

Siphusauctum has a long stem, with a calyx -- a bulbous cup-like structure -- near the top that encloses an unusual filter feeding system and a gut. The animal is thought to have fed by filtering particles from water actively pumped into its calyx through small holes. The stem ends with a small disc which anchored the animal to the seafloor. Siphusauctum lived in large clusters, as indicated by slabs containing over 65 individual specimens.

Lorna O'Brien, a PhD candidate in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Toronto and her supervisor, adjunct professor Jean-Bernard Caron, curator of invertebrate palaeontology at the Royal Ontario Museum, reported on the discovery Jan. 18 in the online science journal PLoS ONE.

"Most interesting is that this feeding system appears to be unique among animals. Recent advances have linked many bizarre Burgess Shale animals as primitive members of many animal groups that are found today, but Siphusauctum defies this trend. We do not know where it fits in relation to other organisms," said lead author O'Brien.

In this reconstruction of Siphusauctum gregarium, the animals are shown in life position, standing upright in the water column. (Illustration by Marianne Collins) Univ of Toronto

"Our description is based on more than 1,100 fossil specimens from a new Burgess Shale locality that has been nicknamed the Tulip Beds," she added.

Located in Yoho National Park, British Columbia, the Tulip Beds were first discovered in 1983 by the Royal Ontario Museum. They are located high on Mount Stephen, overlooking the town of Field. Like the rest of the Burgess Shale, the beds represent rock layers with exceptional preservation of mostly soft-bodied organisms.

The Burgess Shale, protected under the larger Rocky Mountain Parks UNESCO World Heritage site and managed by Parks Canada, preserves fossil evidence of some of the earliest complex animals that lived in the oceans of our planet nearly 505 million years ago. The discovery of Siphusauctum expands the range of animal diversity that existed during this time period.

The research was partially funded by UofT fellowships to O'Brien and a Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada Discovery Grant awarded to Caron.

To learn more about the Burgess Shale visit burgess-shale.rom.on.ca

Journal Reference:
Lorna J. O'Brien, Jean-Bernard Caron. A New Stalked Filter-Feeder from the Middle Cambrian Burgess Shale, British Columbia, Canada. PLoS ONE, 2012; 7 (1): e29233 
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0029233