This fossilized reptile skin from an Oklahoma cave is the oldest on record

Skin gives animals a sensitive, flexible, waterproof barrier to the world. But after death, it doesn’t hold up for long, so it’s hard to study how this remarkable organ evolved in ancient creatures. Now, a team of researchers has identified a fragment of fossilized reptile skin that is more than 20 million years older than previously described examples. The fragment, reported today in Current Biology , dates back to the late Paleozoic Era, when many species began to emerge from the water to live on land. How animal skin adapted to cope with this dramatic transition has long been a “blank spot,” in paleontological research, says Phil Bell, a paleontologist at the University of New England who wasn’t involved with the research. The new finding suggests the complex structure of reptile scales has gone “virtually unchanged” since they first evolved, he adds. Fossils of skin are rare and prized. But in caves, fine sediment deposits and low oxygen conditions help delay decomposition, says lead study author Ethan Mooney, who is pursuing a master’s degree in paleontology at the University of Toronto (U of T). And the limestone caves of Richards Spur in Oklahoma contain some of the world’s most diverse and well-preserved fossils from the Paleozoic. At that time, the caves were filled with petroleum and tar from the nearby Woodford Shale, which saturated the fossils and further protected them from decay. Richards Spur conta...
Source: ScienceNOW - Category: Science Source Type: news