Fossils are 105 million years old in Spain – Hispan TV

A group of researchers has found in amber deposit Alava (Northern Spain), fossils of a tiny shrimp-like crustaceans to 105 million years old, which to date have only been found in three points of France.
 

“Some 18 fossils, which have appeared in amber that emerged from the resin of conifers in the Cretaceous period, belong the tanaidaceans crustaceans and have a body length of less than a millimeter and a half “, so said Friday Geological Survey of Spain.

The discovery and study of these fossils, which has been published in the latest edition of the Journal Systematic Paleontology, reveals that these crustaceans are of a different type prawns though resembling them.

The specimens found in Álava are extremely rare, as they have only appeared in those three French sites, despite the global fossil record includes about 1200 species.

Researchers have discovered three new species and have managed to distinguish the characteristics of male and female, a very rare copies made in such a remote past.

According to the study authors, these crustaceans were very abundant and diverse in the ancient Iberian Peninsula, 105 million years ago was an island.

Currently these crustaceans are typically marine and only some species live in freshwater ponds or brackish water near the sea.

The fact that many considered marine fossils have appeared in amber generated in a forest, together with examples of typical soil arthropod tree areas, leading researchers to conclude that lived on a floor very wet and they were inhabitants of the litter, as currently has some crustaceans from other groups.

WID / nc