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Worldwide researchers together with scientists from Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology (China) have discovered a tapeworm fossil preserved in amber. The amber was mined in Myanmar and is believed up to now from roughly 99 million years in the past. The three-dimensionally preserved fossil shows distinctive exterior and inside options. These options most carefully resemble the tentacles of the trypanorhynch tapeworms that parasitise marine elasmobranchs (sharks and rays).
It’s a thriller as to how the marine parasite ended up preserved in tree resin. One idea is that the carcase of an elasmobranch was scavenged by a theropod dinosaur. The dinosaur ate up the carcase near the place a pine tree was exuding resin. Because the dinosaur tore the carcase aside a part of the parasite was flung on the tree and entombed within the resin because it seeped from the bark.
A hypothetical ecological reconstruction of the fossil trypanorhynch tapeworm (drawn by YANG Dinghua). The fossil tapeworm was lodged within the gut of an elasmobranch and the lifeless host was probably scavenged by a dinosaur on a strandline with pine resin extruding close by. Image credit score: Cihang Luo.
Learning a Tapeworm Fossil
Tapeworms are a kind of parasitic flatworm (Class Cestoda). Many have advanced life cycles, with larvae growing in a single host earlier than invading a secondary host through which they develop to adults and produce eggs. Some six thousand species are recognized, and so they infect all main teams of vertebrates together with mammals and ourselves. Their fossil document is extraordinarily sparse. Nonetheless, there’s a document of potential tapeworm eggs having been preserved within the coprolite of a Permian shark.
Researcher Wang Bo (Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology), commented that the fossil is the primary ever tapeworm physique fossil discovered. The specimen offers direct proof of the evolution of the Cestoda.
The fossil tapeworm from mid-Cretaceous Kachin amber (circa 99 million years in the past) and the comparability with the tentacle of an extant trypanorhynch tapeworm. (A) Microscopic picture of fossil tapeworm. (B) Micro-CT picture of fossil tapeworm. (C) Scanning electron microscopy picture of an extant trypanorhynch tapeworm. Image credit score: Cihang Luo.
The invention demonstrates the outstanding preservation properties of amber.
How Did the Marine Tapeworm Turn out to be Trapped in Tree Resin?
PhD pupil Luo Cihang (Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology), advised how a marine tapeworm grew to become trapped in tree resin.
He proposed:
“It could have parasitised the intestines of a ray. The ray’s physique was washed ashore and was preyed upon by a dinosaur. Because the dinosaur consumed the interior organs of the ray, the worm fell out and turn out to be enveloped in close by resin.”
The analysis, performed by scientists from a number of international locations together with China, Germany, the UK and Myanmar, was not too long ago revealed within the educational journal Geology.
The comparability of the interior construction of the fossil (A) with the tentacle of an extant trypanorhynch tapeworm (B). Abbreviation: ivt—invaginated tentacle. Image credit score: Cihang Luo.
A Outstanding Fossil Discover
A spokesperson from All the pieces Dinosaur commented that this was a outstanding and distinctive fossil discovery. To discover a tapeworm fossil preserved in amber is astonishing. Moreover, it added to the rising physique of proof that amber from Myanmar was produced from Cretaceous timber rising near the coast. Amber from Myanmar has yielded some superb fossils, together with the shell of an ammonite. The ammonite shell preserved within the tree resin is additional proof that this Cretaceous forest was near a marine setting.
To learn All the pieces Dinosaur’s early weblog put up in regards to the ammonite shell preserved in amber: Ammonite Shell Preserved in Amber from Myanmar.
The scientists conclude that the beautiful preservation offers and distinctive instance of a marine endoparasite. The research offers, arguably probably the most convincing physique fossil of a flatworm found up to now.
All the pieces Dinosaur acknowledges the help of a media launch requested from the Chinese language Academy of Sciences within the compilation of this text.
The scientific paper: “Distinctive preservation of a marine tapeworm tentacle in Cretaceous amber” by Cihang Luo, Harry W. Palm, Yuhui Zhuang, Edmund A. Jarzembowski, Thet Tin Nyunt and Bo Wang revealed in Geology.
The All the pieces Dinosaur web site: Prehistoric Animal Fashions and Fossil Replicas.
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