Saturday, February 8, 2025
Contact    |    RSS icon Twitter icon Facebook icon  
Unexplained Mysteries
You are viewing: Home > News > Nature & Environment > News story
Welcome Guest ( Login or Register )  
All ▾
Search Submit

Nature & Environment

'Living fossil' discovered after 273M years

By T.K. Randall
May 10, 2021 · Comment icon 1 comment

This symbiotic relationship has endured over aeons. Image Credit: S. Amemiya et al.
Scientists have discovered an ancient symbiotic relationship off Japan that was long thought to be extinct.
During the Paleozoic era some 273 million years ago, two types of organism - crinoids and corals - appeared throughout the fossil record and shared a mutually beneficial symbiotic relationship, with the corals overgrowing the crinoid stems to climb high above the seafloor to aid filter-feeding.

This effective partnership, while successful during prehistoric times, seemed to have disappeared following the Permian-Triassic extinction, but now - against all odds - scientists have discovered living examples of corals growing from the stalks of crinoids on the seafloor off the coast of Japan.

"These specimens represent the first detailed records and examinations of a recent syn vivo association of a crinoid (host) and a hexacoral (epibiont)," the researchers wrote.
"...analyses of these associations can shed new light on our understanding of these common Paleozoic associations."

The modern-day version of this age-old relationship involves two different species of coral - Metridioidea and Abyssoanthus - which were found growing from Japanese sea lilies.

The discovery was made approximately 100 meters below the ocean's surface.

"As both Actiniaria and Zoantharia have their phylogenetic roots deep in the Palaeozoic, and coral-crinoid associations were common among Palaeozoic Tabulate and Rugose corals, we can speculate that also Palaeozoic non-skeletal corals might have developed this strategy of settling on crinoids," the researchers wrote.

Source: Science Alert | Comments (1)




Other news and articles
Recent comments on this story
Comment icon #1 Posted by Earl.Of.Trumps 4 years ago
Tres interesting stuff here. Another species found to not be extinct after all. and it is an ancient one, 273 million years. yowzers.


Please Login or Register to post a comment.


Our new book is out now!
Book cover

The Unexplained Mysteries
Book of Weird News

 AVAILABLE NOW 

Take a walk on the weird side with this compilation of some of the weirdest stories ever to grace the pages of a newspaper.

Click here to learn more

We need your help!
Patreon logo

Support us on Patreon

 BONUS CONTENT 

For less than the cost of a cup of coffee, you can gain access to a wide range of exclusive perks including our popular 'Lost Ghost Stories' series.

Click here to learn more

Recent news and articles