Latest news with #Carboniferous
Time of India
20-05-2025
- Science
- Time of India
8 interesting scorpion facts that will blow your mind: Know about their characteristics, origin and more
are ancient creatures known for their sharp pincers and venomous stingers. With a lineage dating back over 400 million years, they're among the oldest land predators on Earth.t They are found on every continent except Antarctica, scorpions thrive in deserts, forests, grasslands, and even mountains. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now Despite their fearsome reputation, most species pose little danger to humans, and many play a vital role in controlling insect populations. They also carry some facts that you might not know till now! The features that make them fascinating isn't just their sting—but their ability to glow under ultraviolet light, their impressive survival skills, and their unique mating rituals. Whether feared or admired, scorpions are remarkable beings that blend ancient power with modern mystery. Lesser known facts about scorpions They bring forth living young directly Unlike insects, which usually lay their eggs outside the body, scorpions give birth to live young—a reproductive method called viviparity . In some species, the developing young grow inside a membrane, receiving nourishment from both a yolk and their mother. Others skip the membrane stage, with the young directly absorbing nutrients from the mother. Depending on the species, the pregnancy can last anywhere from two months to a year and a half. After birth, the tiny scorpions climb onto their mother's back, where they stay safe until they molt for the first time. Once they've shed their outer layer, they leave to begin life on their own. Known for their extended life expectancy While most arthropods have short lifespans, often living only a few weeks or months, scorpions stand out for their longevity. For example, mayflies survive just a few days. In contrast, scorpions are among the longest-living arthropods. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now In their natural habitats, they usually live between two and ten years, but in captivity, some have been known to live up to 25 years. Long evolutionary history If you could journey back 300 million years, you'd find scorpions that closely resemble the ones we see today. Fossil records indicate that scorpions have changed very little since the Carboniferous period. Their earliest ancestors probably lived in the ocean and might have possessed gills. By around 420 million years ago, during the Silurian period, some of them had begun to inhabit land. These early scorpions may also have had compound eyes. Endure extremely harsh environments Arthropods have inhabited land for over 400 million years, and scorpions—some of their most resilient members—can live up to 25 years. This longevity is no coincidence. Scorpions are incredibly tough creatures. They can survive an entire year without eating and endure being submerged in water for up to 48 hours, thanks to their book lungs, which they share with horseshoe crabs. Although they often live in dry, harsh climates, they get all the moisture they need from their food. With very low metabolic rates, they use only a fraction of the oxygen that most insects require. Scorpions are built for survival and seem nearly impossible to destroy. Members of the arachnid family Scorpions are arthropods classified within the arachnid group, which also includes spiders, harvestmen, ticks, mites, and various scorpion-like creatures that aren't true scorpions—such as whipscorpions, pseudoscorpions, and wind scorpions. Like other arachnids, scorpions have two main body sections—the cephalothorax and the abdomen—as well as four pairs of legs. While scorpions share many physical traits with their arachnid relatives, evolutionary scientists believe they are most closely related to harvestmen (Opiliones). Scorpions perform a courtship dance before mating Scorpions engage in an elaborate courtship ritual known as the promenade à deux (literally, a walk for two). The dance begins when the male and female make contact. The male takes his partner by her pedipalps and gracefully walks her back and forth until he finds a proper location for his spermatophore. Once he deposits his package of sperm, he leads the female over it and positions her genital opening so she can take up the sperm. In the wild, the male usually makes a quick departure once mating is completed. In captivity, the female often devours her mate, having worked up an appetite from all the dancing. They illuminate in darkness The exact reason scorpions glow under ultraviolet light is still a topic of debate among scientists. Their cuticle, or outer skin, absorbs UV light and then emits it as visible light. This property greatly aids scorpion researchers, who can use black lights at night in scorpion habitats to make them glow. While only around 600 scorpion species were known a few decades ago, scientists have now identified nearly 2,000 species, thanks in part to the use of UV lights. After a scorpion molts, its new cuticle is soft and lacks the compound responsible for fluorescence, so newly molted scorpions don't glow. Interestingly, scorpion fossils can still fluoresce, even after being trapped in rock for millions of years. They can feed on almost anything Scorpions are primarily active at night. Most scorpions hunt insects, spiders, and other arthropods, but some also feed on grubs and earthworms. Larger scorpions are capable of consuming bigger prey, including small rodents and lizards. While many scorpions will eat whatever they can catch, others focus on specific types of prey, like certain beetle species or burrowing spiders. In times of scarcity, a hungry mother scorpion may even resort to eating her own young. Scorpions possess venom Indeed, scorpions do produce venom. Their intimidating tail consists of five segments of the abdomen, arched upward, with the final segment called the telson. The venom is produced within the telson, and at its tip is a sharp, needle-like structure known as the aculeus, which serves as the venom delivery system. Scorpions have control over when to release venom and can adjust its potency depending on whether they need to subdue prey or protect themselves from threats. Scorpions are not very dangerous to people While scorpions can sting and it's certainly not a pleasant experience, they generally don't pose much of a threat to humans. Out of the nearly 2,000 scorpion species worldwide, only 25 have venom potent enough to seriously harm an adult. Young children are at higher risk due to their smaller size. In the U.S., the only scorpion of concern is the Arizona bark scorpion, Centruroides sculpturatus , whose venom can be fatal to a small child. Thankfully, antivenom is readily available in medical facilities across its habitat, making fatalities extremely rare.
Yahoo
19-05-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Scientists Found Footprints That Push Humanity's Timeline Back By 40 Million Years
"Hearst Magazines and Yahoo may earn commission or revenue on some items through these links." Here's what you'll learn in this story: The common ancestor of all tetrapods (including humans) was previously thought to have emerged at the dawn of the Carboniferous period. Fossilized tracks from an early reptile are now the oldest known reptilian tracks, meaning the tetrapod ancestor most likely appeared earlier, during the Devonian period. These tracks were made by clawed feet—a characteristic of amniotes. Their appearance pushes back amniotes evolution by 35-40 million years. Between 359 and 350 million years ago, it rained. Lizard-like creatures crawled through the mud in what was once Gondwana (but is now Australia), leaving behind footprints that became frozen in time, fossilizing as mud turned to stone over the aeons. These tracks would later be unearthed in an excavation that questioned how far back in time our tetrapod ancestors walked on land. Tetrapods (meaning 'four legs' in Greek) include all amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals, and are thought to originate from lobe-finned fish that made their way out of primeval seas on fins that functioned as primitive legs. Humans are tetrapods, and like all tetrapods (except amphibians), we are also amniotes, with eggs that protect developing embryos in amniotic sacs. Amniotes are thought to have diverged from amphibians at the dawn of the Carboniferous period, about 355 million years ago. Mammals would diverge from reptiles and birds only 30 million years later. The fossil footprints were discovered at the edge of an paleontological site in eastern Victoria known as Broken River (or Berrepit in Taungurung, the language spoken by local indigenous people). Whatever creature left imprints of its feet on the riverbank provides the first evidence of terrestrial life in this area, and claw marks from the footprints suggest it was an amniote—except that amniotes weren't supposed to have evolved so early in the Carboniferous period. 'This pushes back the likely origin of crown-group amniotes by at least 35-40 million years,' the Australian and Swedish team of researchers who excavated at the Berrepit site said in a study recently published in the journal Nature. '[Amniotes] cannot be much younger than the Devonian/Carboniferous boundary, and [the origin of tetrapods] must be located deep within the Devonian.' Before this find, the oldest known amniote fossils were tracks from Notalacerta and the bones of Hylonomus. Both species were sauropsids—part of a larger group of extant and extinct reptiles and birds that presumably lived during the late Carboniferous. The common ancestor of all tetrapods was thought to have emerged in the earliest years of the Carboniferous, but that changed when this team of experts came upon the mysterious tetrapod footsteps from Berrepit. They now think that the tetrapod ancestor appeared during the Devonian, and that amniotes began to diverge from them about 395 million years ago, 35 to 40 million years earlier than previously thought. It is evident that the footsteps came not just from a tetrapod, but from an amniote because almost all amniotes have claws or nails. Claw marks scratched the wet earth after a short rain shower, and there is no evidence of a body or tail dragged across the ground. While it is impossible to know what this animal actually looked like, the spacing between forefeet and hind feet indicates that it was about 17 cm (about 6.7 inches) from shoulder to hip, with neck, head, and tail lengths unknown. Using a modern water monitor as a proxy, the researchers determined it must have been about 80 cm (about 31.5 inches) total in length. Something else could possibly be demystified by the footprints—the end-Devonian mass extinction was thought to have such a catastrophic impact, it could explain why tetrapods don't appear in the fossil record for another 20 million years. Tetrapods dating to after the gap are much more diverse and advanced than their pre-gap predecessors. Early Carboniferous sauropsid tracks mean that tetrapods must have been branching out from their common ancestor sometime during the Devonian, meaning that the mass extinction had little effect on the evolution of tetrapods. 'The [fossil footprints] have a disproportionate impact on our understanding of early tetrapod evolution because of their combination of diagnostic amniote characteristics and early, securely constrained date,' the researchers said. 'They demonstrate, once more, the extraordinary importance of happenstance and serendipity in the study of severely under-sampled parts of the fossil record.' You Might Also Like The Do's and Don'ts of Using Painter's Tape The Best Portable BBQ Grills for Cooking Anywhere Can a Smart Watch Prolong Your Life?
The Print
18-05-2025
- Science
- The Print
Discovery of ancient ‘reptile' claw fossils kicks evolution's timeline back by over 35 million years
'I'm stunned,' Per Ahlberg from Uppsala University, who led the study, said in a media release . 'A single track-bearing slab, which one person can lift, calls into question everything we thought we knew about when modern tetrapods evolved.' A study published in Nature Wednesday dates the fossil tracks to be approximately 355 million years old. It pushes the origin of the species back by 35 to 40 million years from what was earlier thought to be the point when tetrapods evolved from a group of fish that left the sea. This has an implication on the history of human evolution given that we are direct descendants of these tetrapods. New Delhi: The discovery of ancient fossil footprints of claws in Australia have scientists across the world re-examining evolutionary times of land-based vertebrates. It was two amateur explorers who discovered the tracks on the banks of the Broken River in Taungurung Country, Victoria, and alerted paleontologists. They were preserved on the upper surface of a loose but fine-grained silty sandstone block. In the Nature study, the authors called it a 'demonstration of the value of citizen science.' Uppsala University's Ahlberg teamed up with paleontologists from Australia's Flinders University. 'Once we identified this, we realised this is the oldest evidence in the world of reptile-like animals walking around on land, and it pushes their evolution back by 35-to-40 million years older than the previous records in the Northern Hemisphere,' said Professor John Long of Flinders University in a press release. Their findings are threatening to upend our understanding of evolution of all tetrapods. Also Read: 47 yrs ago, this Indian-origin physicist asked Feynman a question. He hasn't looked back since When did the first tetrapods emerge? As the word suggests, tetrapods include all species that have 'four feet'. They are the first colonists on land and their origin began when fish transitioned from the oceans to adapt to life on land. They are the distant ancestors of all modern amphibians and amniotes that includes vertebrate animals like reptiles, birds and mammals, including humans. The oldest known tetrapods had primitive fish-like forms, and could barely move on land. The separation of amphibians and amniotes was so far believed to have begun at the start of the Carboniferous period, some 355 million years ago. This separation is known as the tetrapod crown group node. The new study changes what was previously known by suggesting that the separation dates back to the Devonian period, some 390 million years ago. 'The timeline of these events has seemed clear-cut: the first tetrapods evolved during the Devonian period and the earliest members of the modern groups appeared during the following Carboniferous period,' according to the media release from Uppsala University. It's the claws that have generated much excitement within the scientific community. 'Claws are present in all early amniotes, but almost never in other groups of tetrapods,' said Ahlberg. 'The combination of the claw scratches and the shape of the feet suggests that the track maker was a primitive reptile.' The study also suggests that tetrapods originated in Gondwana, the southern supercontinent which Australia was a part of. It also included present-day South America, Africa, Arabia, Madagascar, India, and Antarctica. The researchers have also found new fossil reptile footprints from Poland, suggesting that tetrapods in the Euramerica—the supercontinent that formed during the Devonian period and included North America, Greenland, northern Europe, and Russia—also originated earlier than previously thought. So far, researchers have found only fossilised footprints and no fossil bones of ancient tetrapods, but if the new timelines are correct, the fossil footprints findings suggest that the evolution into land-based animals occurred not just earlier but also much quicker than initially thought. (Edited by Radifah Kabir) Also Read: Search for an Indian Carl Sagan is on. Science influencers are being trained in labs and likes
Yahoo
15-05-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Newly Discovered Fossil Tracks May Rewrite Early History of Reptiles
Fossil claw prints found in Australia were probably made by the earliest known members of the group that includes reptiles, birds and mammals, according to a study published in Nature today. The findings suggest that this group — the amniotes — originated at least 35 million years earlier than previously thought. Early amniotes evolved to lay eggs on land, because they were encased in an amniotic membrane that stopped them drying out. Before this study, the earliest known amniote fossils had been found in Nova Scotia, Canada, and were dated to the mid-Carboniferous period, about 319 million years ago. The latest findings suggest that amniotes also existed in the early Carboniferous period, around 355 million years ago. 'This discovery is exciting, and if the tracks have been interpreted the right way, the findings have important implications for our understanding of tetrapod evolution,' says Steven Salisbury, a palaeontologist at the University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia. [Sign up for Today in Science, a free daily newsletter] The claw tracks were found in a sandstone block on the bank of the Broken River at Barjarg in the state of Victoria, by two co-authors of the paper who are not professional scientists. This area of the river is known as Berrepit to the Indigenous Taungurung people who own the land. The sandstone block is part of a larger structure that had already been dated to the early Carboniferous on the basis of radiometric and tectonic evidence. Fossilized tracks of aquatic invertebrates and fish found in the same layer were also dated to this time period. The three sets of tracks in the study have clear footprints with indentations from claws, a feature of reptiles but not of amphibians. 'Having these hooked claws on the trackways indicates they're definitely a reptile-like animal,' says John Long, a palaeontologist at Flinders University in Adelaide, Australia. There are no marks of dragging bellies or tails, and the authors suggest that the amniotes that left the tracks were able to keep their bodies and tails off the ground while they walked on land. But Salisbury questions that interpretation, because it would mean the animals had developed sophisticated structures for complex locomotion, which would be surprising given how early they are. 'It seems more likely that the tracks were made by an animal that was 'punting' in shallow water, rather than walking on land,' he says. Until now, evidence suggested that the last common ancestor of modern amphibians and amniotes lived around 352 million years ago. But if the ancestors of reptiles existed during the early Carboniferous, their split from amphibians must have occurred even earlier, says Long. Dating by the team suggests that the groups diverged in the Devonian period, about 380 million years ago. To estimate the probable time of divergence, Long and his colleagues used several dating methods. One included geological evidence from radioactive decay in volcanic rock layers above and below the fossil tracks. They also used molecular phylogenetics, which compares similarities and differences in the DNA of living species to estimate their evolutionary relationships and how recently their last common ancestor lived. The discovery could also shift the origin of amniotes to the Gondwana landmass. This formed the southern portion of the Pangaea supercontinent and gave rise to multiple current landmasses, including Africa and Australia. Previously, the earliest known amniotes were found in North America, leading palaeontologists to think that the group originated in the Northern Hemisphere. But more evidence from Australian fossils is needed before definitively shifting their origin site, says Long. 'Australia is a vast area with fewer palaeontologists on the ground,' Long says. 'We've got a lot more unexplored fossil sites where new things like this keep turning up.' This article is reproduced with permission and was first published on May 14, 2025.
Yahoo
15-05-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Ancient reptile tracks rewrite when animals conquered land
After a brief rain in part of the ancient supercontinent of Gondwana 350 million years ago, a reptile pressed its small claws into the still-wet ground. Its tracks, which have been discovered in Australia, mean it is the oldest-known vertebrate animal to have permanently abandoned the oceans for dry land, a study suggested on Wednesday. It also significantly pushes back the date for when these four-limbed pioneers made this important evolutionary step that would eventually lead to humans conquering the globe. The tracks were found by amateur archaeologists on a 30-centimetre-wide sandstone slab in a mountainous area of the southeastern Australian state of Victoria. First there was a single footprint of an unknown animal which has "raindrop pockmarks all over it," Per Ahlberg, a palaeontologist at Sweden's Uppsala University, told AFP. This suggests it was made before the brief shower, said the senior author of a new Nature study describing the discovery. Then there were two sets of tracks from after the rain. The second set of tracks suggest this reptile ancestor "was in more of a hurry", he added. "You see the claws making long scratches on the ground." - 'Keyholes' into 'lost world' - The researchers cannot determine whether both sets of tracks were made by the same individual animal, but Ahlberg thinks this is unlikely. The animal was 60-80 centimetres long and would have looked "quite lizard-like", he added. That the animal had claws is a clear sign it was an amniote, a group of animals which today includes mammals, birds and reptiles. Its ancestor tetrapods -- notable for their four limbs -- split into two groups, amniotes and amphibians. While amphibians had to return to water to lay their eggs, amniotes evolved to have eggs strong enough to survive on land, shedding its last connection to water life. The discovery indicates that amniotes existed 35 to 40 million years earlier than previously thought, during the turn of the Devonian and Carboniferous periods, the study said. This suggests the "water-to-land-dwelling transition" may have taken place in just 50 million years, much quicker than had been believed, Stuart Sumida of California State University commented in Nature. That would be just the latest twist in the tale of how animals rose from the ocean to dominate the land. "The only way to ever understand it is to look through these tiny little keyholes that we find into this strange, dark, lost world," Ahlberg said. pcl-dl/jj
