Another Amateur Addition To Science; Giant Shrimp Sperm Fossil

[Scylla]

There have been a bunch of stories about this find. Here is one:

http://www.bendigoadvertiser.com.au/story/2284186/bendigo-man-discovers-worlds-oldest-sperm/?cs=80

[Haizahnjager]

And I thought that I collected "micro fossils?"

[FossilDAWG]

Cool story, silly headline.

"Giant Shrimp" is an interesting oxymoron. Also the first time I have heard ostracods called "shrimp".

I'm also going to quibble with the statement in the article that the "shrimp" in question have not evolved in 17 million years, in contradiction of "Darwin's theory". Morphology is only one aspect of a species, unfortunately it is the only one we have to work with in the case of fossils. Species evolve at the genetic and biochemical level faster than they do at the morphological. For example, there are several well known species complexes of mosquitoes, in which cryptic species have evolved relatively recently in response to availability of new habitats. Such species have evolved reproductive barriers so that they are no longer interfertile, even though there are no anatomical differences and one has to use molecular biology techniques such as PCR to tell them apart. For example, the African malaria mosquito Anopheles gambiae is a member of a complex of at least six species that evolved from a forest-dwelling ancestor since humans developed agriculture and started creating clearings in the forest. The ancestral species never leaves the forest cover, and rarely bites humans. Anopheles gambiae is associated with sunlit areas, breeds in close association with villages, and feeds almost exclusively on humans.

The point is, a slow pace of morphological change does not mean the species is not evolving.

Don

[Oxytropidoceras]

The paper is:

Matzke-Karasz, R., J. V. Neil, R. J. Smith, R. Symonova,

L. Mořkovský, M. Archer, S. J. Hand, P. Cloetens, and

P. Tafforeau, 2014, Subcellular preservation in giant

ostracod sperm from an early Miocene cave deposit in

Australia. Proceedings of the Royal Society B. vol. 281

no. 20140394; doi:10.1098/rspb.2014.0394

http://rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/281/1786/20140394.abstract

Unfortunately, Science Daily also refers to ostracods as "shrimp." Go see:

Ancient giant sperm from tiny shrimps discovered

at Riversleigh World Heritage Fossil Site. University

of New South Wales, May 13, 2014

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/05/140513204635.htm

The original press release is at:

World's oldest fossil sperm found at Riversleigh

http://newsroom.unsw.edu.au/news/science/worlds-oldest-fossil-sperm-found-riversleigh

Yours,

Paul H.

Edited May 16, 2014 by Oxytropidoceras