Palaeontology

16 million-year-old tardigrade found in amber

By T.K. Randall
October 6, 2021

Image: AI-generated (Midjourney) It is often said that if a major apocalyptic disaster was to befall the Earth, the only thing left would be cockroaches. In reality however, there is another, far more resilient creature on our planet that would still be around long after the cockroaches had disappeared

The tardigrade (or water bear) is one of the toughest life forms in existence. These microscopic invertebrates have been around for over 520 million years and have lived through countless mass extinction events including the one that wiped out the dinosaurs.

Now a previously undiscovered species of tardigrade, one dating back 16 million years, has been found preserved within a lump of amber that was unearthed in the Dominican Republic.

Named Paradoryphoribius chronocaribbeus, it is only the third tardigrade preserved in amber ever to be fully described and named. The reason for this scarcity is down to their tiny size and the fact that their bodies don't break down and produce the types of minerals that are preserved for long periods."The discovery of a fossil tardigrade is truly a once-in-a-generation event," said Phil Barden - a biologist at the New Jersey Institute of Technology.

"What is so remarkable is that tardigrades are a ubiquitous ancient lineage that has seen it all on Earth, from the fall of the dinosaurs to the rise of terrestrial colonization of plants."

"Yet, they are like a ghost lineage for paleontologists with almost no fossil record. Finding any tardigrade fossil remains is an exciting moment where we can empirically see their progression through Earth history."

Tardigrades are tough microscopic animals that can survive the vacuum of space, but they don't fossilise well. A new specimen from ancient amber is just the third ever found https://t.co/VpKS7k6iZX

— New Scientist (@newscientist) October 6, 2021

Source: Science Alert

Tags: Tardigrade