Search the archive:
YaBB - Yet another Bulletin Board
 
   
 
Page Index Toggle Pages: 1
Send Topic Print
Life in Scotland (Read 1062 times)
Jan 26th, 2004 at 3:25pm

ozzy72   Offline
Global Moderator
Pretty scary huh?
Madsville

Gender: male
Posts: 37122
*****
 
It is not, perhaps, the most obvious place to go searching for the origins of life. But the first creature to emerge from the sea and breathe fresh air, a tiny millipede, took its faltering steps in the small coastal town of Stonehaven just south of Aberdeen.
A 1cm segment of fossilised millipede, discovered in the town by Mike Newman, a bus driver and amateur palaeontologist, has been authenticated as the oldest remains of a breathing animal.
The millipede is believed to be around 420 million years old, some 20 million years older than its predecessor in the primordial hierarchy, which was also found in Aberdeenshire.
Mr Newman discovered the fossil at a siltstone bed outcropping near Cowie harbour three years ago. But it has taken a great deal of work for experts from the National Museums of Scotland and Yale university to prove the significance of his find.
In the current edition of American journal of palaeontology, the experts confirm that the millipede had spiracles, which it used for breathing, on the outside of its body.
At that time Stonehaven was merely another insignificant part of the giant Larussia continent, which encompassed modern-day Europe, Siberia and North America.
Mr Newman is a keen fossil hunter and he decided to explore the site at Cowie harbour after its age was recently reclassified to much older than had previously been thought. The millipede species has been named Pneumodesmus newmani in his honour.
Lyall Anderson, curator of invertebrate palaeontology at the national museums, told the Sunday Herald newspaper: "It was obvious to me this was the oldest example of this group of animals that has ever been found."
For Mr Newman, the search for early life goes on. He believes Cowie harbour may contain the fossils of early eurypterids, or scorpion-like creatures, which may contain breathing systems and pre-date his millipede.
Mr Newman, 36, who has a collection of more than 2,000 fossils at his home in Kenmay, Aberdeenshire, said: "To find something that is so much older than what's been found before was obviously a thrill. And to have something named after you is very nice - particularly something that's going to be around in text books for a long time to come."

 

...
There are two types of aeroplane, Spitfires and everything else that wishes it was a Spitfire!
IP Logged
 
Reply #1 - Jan 27th, 2004 at 1:46pm

Felix/FFDS   Offline
Admin
FINALLY an official Granddad!
Orlando, FL

Gender: male
Posts: 1000000627
*****
 
Apart from the neat thing of having something formally named after oneself, I get to thinking of all that that fossil may have "seen" and to the coincidence of fossil and man coinciding.  How many others may have seen the fossil, but only that ONE person recognized it as something possibly significant?

 

Felix/FFDS...
IP Logged
 
Reply #2 - Jan 27th, 2004 at 3:14pm

Hagar   Offline
Colonel
My Spitfire Girl
Costa Geriatrica

Posts: 33159
*****
 
Quite fascinating. I heard about this on the news but hadn't really given it much thought. Not wishing to take anything away from Mr Newman, or Scotland for that matter, but I tend to be rather sceptical about these things especially where fossils are concerned. I remember being taught at school about Piltdown Man, the missing link between the apes & humans. This discovery had been made at Piltdown, East Sussex, not that far from here, hence the name. It was all rather romantic. Not long after I left school it was found to be a hoax. Shocked

I imagine this meant all the reference books had to be withdrawn & rewritten. This might well explain my cynical nature & distrust of "experts". I get worse as I get older. Roll Eyes

http://home.tiac.net/~cri_a/piltdown/piltdown.html
 

...

Founder & Sole Member - Grumpy's Over the Hill Club for Veteran Virtual Aviators
Member of the Fox Four Group

Need help? Try Grumpy's Lair

My photo gallery
IP Logged
 
Reply #3 - Jan 29th, 2004 at 8:15am

ozzy72   Offline
Global Moderator
Pretty scary huh?
Madsville

Gender: male
Posts: 37122
*****
 
Hagar remember the old rule;
Professionals built the Titanic.
Amateurs built the Ark!

'Nuff said Wink Grin
 

...
There are two types of aeroplane, Spitfires and everything else that wishes it was a Spitfire!
IP Logged
 
Page Index Toggle Pages: 1
Send Topic Print