Science

eppur_se_muova

(36,247 posts) Fri Sep 7, 2012, 02:55 PM Sep 2012

Fossil records {horseshoe} 'crab' death march (BBC)

By Nick Crumpton

BBC News

The behaviour of an ancient horseshoe crab in its final moments before death has been captured in the fossil record.

A 9.7m-long trackway was created around 150 million years ago when a horseshoe crab fell into a lagoon.

The find is of interest because the fossil of the animal itself is present at the end of the trackway, where the animal died.

The research appears in the journal Ichnos.

The fossil trackway of the animal's last moments - known as a mortichnia, or death march - was discovered in the lithographic limestone of Bavaria in Germany in 2002, where spectacular fossils of the famous feathered dinosaur Archaeopteryx have also been found.
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more: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-19514333

11 replies

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Fossil records {horseshoe} 'crab' death march (BBC) (Original Post) eppur_se_muova Sep 2012 OP

poor thing - im not a scientist so maybe it's lost on me but i fail to find any significance here leftyohiolib Sep 2012 #1

It is very rare that fossil tracks can be identified with certainty -- eppur_se_muova Sep 2012 #3

i guess that from now on where we see these types of tracks we now know leftyohiolib Sep 2012 #4

Pretty much -- of course, a horseshoe crab is a living fossil, so in this case ... eppur_se_muova Sep 2012 #5

how did they survive the e.l.e.s ? did they live through the permian exctinction leftyohiolib Sep 2012 #6

Fossils rarely give us any insight into animal behavior. AtheistCrusader Sep 2012 #8

Poor thing! Odin2005 Sep 2012 #2

This is what happens when all you have to guide you is a GPS formercia Sep 2012 #7

I can't hear that joke without imposing Mel Brooks's voice over it. HopeHoops Sep 2012 #9

Oy! formercia Sep 2012 #10

Yeah, that one. HopeHoops Sep 2012 #11

leftyohiolib

(5,917 posts)

1. poor thing - im not a scientist so maybe it's lost on me but i fail to find any significance here

Reply to eppur_se_muova (Original post)

Fri Sep 7, 2012, 04:03 PM

Sep 2012

not a dig at the poster -

eppur_se_muova

(36,247 posts)

3. It is very rare that fossil tracks can be identified with certainty --

Reply to leftyohiolib (Reply #1)

Sat Sep 8, 2012, 09:48 AM

Sep 2012

here, the creature that made the tracks is found dead at the end of the tracks, so there is no question that the tracks can be properly identified with the creature.

No one has ever found a dead dinosaur at the end of a dino trackway, so however much we might believe a track was made by a certain species of dinosaur, we can never be certain. As a result, fossil tracks are given special names, distinct from the species names assigned to fossilized skeletal remains. http://www.enchantedlearning.com/subjects/dinosaurs/glossary/Ichnogenera.shtml