A team from the National Autonomous University of Mexico has found a 4.7 inch long world’s oldest lobster fossil.
Mexican scientists said that the creature was alive when the African continent was just breaking apart from the Americas some 120 million years ago.
This 120 million years old fossil’s shell and legs are amazingly preserved by the mud in the southern state of Chiapas where it was found. Also, this prized discovery is about 20 million years older than the existing lobster fossils.
The team says ,”Practically 90 percent of this specimen’s body has been preserved. It was buried in this microscopic mud (and) has very fine morphological details”. Though it was discovered in 1995, it took around a decade of hard work to establis the fossil’s age in 2005. The findings were published in November 2006 and publicized recently.
It is the perseverance and patience of scientists as these that we are able to marvel at the ways of nature.
Via : Reuters