The remains of an ancient crab were found trapped in amber According to researchers It dates back 100 million years – the oldest modern crab ever discovered.
Javier Luc / Lida Cheng
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The jungle crab was discovered in Southeast Asia by miners in 2015 and was recently shared with the Longines Amber Museum in China. According to the researchers, it is also the first crab ever discovered that coexisted with dinosaurs.
According to Javier Luc, a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Organic and Evolutionary Biology at Harvard University, if we were to reconstruct the tree of life of crabs, using molecular DNA analysis, they would expect to separate non-marine crabs from their marine ancestors. . More than 125 million years ago.
The new discovery allows researchers to bridge the gap between the expected molecular difference and the actual fossil record of the crab, which before this discovery was about 75 to 80 million years old.
Javier Luc / Lida Cheng
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Luque performed minute scans during the examination which allowed them to get a clear view of the minute details of the cancerous tissue, such as the antennae, legs and mouth covered in fine hairs, nostrils and large, compound eyes. In fact, the condition of the amber was so pure that not even a single hair was lost.
The analysis showed that the lobster did not have lung tissue, only gills, which indicates that it is an animal that lives both on land and in water.
All over the world, Luque said in a statement, “They make wonderful pets in aquariums, are delicious for those of us who eat them, are celebrated at parades and festivals, and even have their own constellations. Crabs in general are wonderful, some of which are weird-looking – crabs are Small crab in the form of giant peas or coconut palms.
Javier Luc / Lida Cheng
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He added, “The diversity of shapes among crabs has captured the imagination of the scientific and non-scientific masses, and now people are happy to learn more about this wonderful group that are not dinosaurs. It’s a huge time for crabs.”
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