|
|
Article: Canadian discovery of ancient horseshoe crab fossils.(Curator's corner)
- Article from:
- ROM Magazine
- Article date:
- March 22, 2008
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2008 Royal Ontario Museum Governors. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
|
Few modern animals are as deserving of the title "living fossil" as the lowly horseshoe crab. Seemingly unchanged since before the Age of Dinosaurs, these venerable sea creatures can now claim a history that reaches back almost half a billion years. In a collaborative research article published in January in the prestigious British journal Palaeontology, a ROM-led team of Canadian scientists revealed rare new horseshoe crab fossils they had discovered in 445 million year old rocks--about 120 million years older than any previously known forms.
ROM paleontologist Dave Rudkin with colleagues Dr. Graham Young of The Manitoba Museum and Dr. Godfrey Nowlan of the ...