Lebendes Fossil torpediert Theorien - Bakterium hat sein Genom seit gut 150 Millionen Jahren nicht verändert scinexx.de - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from scinexx.de Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Metasequoia trees are ablaze with autumn colors in Takashima, Shiga Prefecture, in December. (Asahi Shimbun file photo)
Two towering trees stretch their branches into the wintry sky in a corner of the National Museum of Nature and Science in Tokyo’s Ueno district.
The metasequoia, also known as “a living fossil,” was named 80 years ago by botanist Shigeru Miki (1901-1974), who taught at Kyoto Imperial University, present-day Kyoto University.
While analyzing numerous plant fossils, Miki came across an unidentified deciduous tree among those thought to be evergreen sequoia.
He published his discovery, naming it metasequoia. The prefix “meta” means “after” or “beyond” in Greek.
Accidental Discovery: Pterodactyl Search Reveals Massive Coelacanth Fossil Instead
KEY POINTS
The fossil was discovered while identifying a possible part of a pterodactyl skull
The discovery points to the last record of the species before its pseudo-extinction
Scientists have discovered evidence of an ancient massive coelacanth by accident. According to the researchers, the specimen points to the largest coelacanth ever found.
It was when scientist Professor David Martill was asked to help identify a bone from a private collection in London that the discovery was made, the University of Portsmouth
news release explained. The owner of the specimen reportedly thought that it was part of a
Living Fossil: African coelacanth is not 65 mn years-old as evolution is evident in its genes
The fish went on to earn the moniker living fossil because of its anatomy that resembled fossilised records.
Feb 12, 2021 12:29:09 IST
Back in 1938, the first living coelacanth was caught off the coast of South Africa, roughly 65 million years after it was believed to have been become extinct. Needless to say, the discovery caused quite a stir. While the fish went on to earn the moniker living fossil because of its anatomy that resembled fossilised records, researchers from the University of Toronto have now said that the genome of the ancient coelacanth tells a whole different story. According to a