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14 HEALTH AND LABORATORY MAGAZINE

TINY RARE FOSSIL FOUND IN

16 MILLION YEAR OLD AMBER

mals are no longer than progression through Earth to rely on imaging tech- our planet today.”
one millimeter. They have history.” niques usually reserved
eight legs with claws for cellular and molecular Tardigrades can tolerate
at the end, a brain and The fossil allowed re- biology shows how chal- extremes better than most
Microscopic central nervous system, searchers to see evo- lenging it is to study fossil forms of life -- like surviving
tardigrades and something sucker-like lutionary aspects that tardigrades,” said Javier five mass extinction events
on Earth -- and some
Ortega-Hernández, study
aren’t present in modern
called a pharynx behind
have thrived their mouth that can pierce tardigrades, which means coauthor and assistant recently traveled to the
on Earth for food. Tardigrades are the they can understand how professor of organismic International Space Sta-
tion. It’s not the first time
and evolutionary biology
they’ve changed over mil-
smallest-known animal
more than 500 with legs. lions of years. at Harvard University, in tardigrades have gone to
million years, All of these details are At first, the researchers a statement. “We hope space -- and there may
that this work encourages
even be some of them on
and may incredibly well preserved didn’t even notice the tar- colleagues to look more the moon after a mission
well outlive in the new fossil specimen, digrade was trapped in the closely at their amber sam- carrying them crashed into
its surface.
ples with similar techniques
piece of amber.
down to its tiny claws.
humans,
but the tiny The tiny animals are relat-
ed to arthropods and have
creatures a deep origin during the
don’t leave Cambrian Explosion, when
multiple species of animals
behind many suddenly appear in Earth’s
fossils. fossil record, 541 million
years ago. More tardigrade
fossils could be hiding with-
in other pieces of amber
Hiding in plain sight, the that have already been
third-ever tardigrade fossil studied -- researchers just
on record has been found have to look close enough
suspended within a piece and have the expertise of
of 16-million-year-old Do- what they’re looking for
minican amber. when it comes to micro-
scopic fossils.
This is a close-up view of the newly discovered taridgrade species trapped in amber.
The find includes a newly
named species, Parado- And tardigrades could out-
ryphoribius chronocar- “The discovery of a fossil This 16 million year old to better understand these live humans. It’s because
ibbeus, as a relative of tardigrade is truly a once in Dominican amber includes cryptic organisms.” they would be largely unaf-
the modern living family a generation event,” said a tardigrade fossil as well fected by things that could
of tardigrades known as Phil Barden, senior author as three ants, a beetle and The new species is the potentially spell doom for
Isohypsibioidea. It’s the of the study and assistant a flower. first definitive fossil for the Earth and human life in
first tardigrade fossil from professor of biology at modern Isohypsibioidea the future, like asteroids,
the Cenozoic, our current New Jersey Institute of “It’s a faint speck in amber,” family of tardigrades found supernovae or gamma
geological era that began Technology, in a statement. said Barden. “In fact, Pdo. across both marine and ray bursts. As long as the
66 million years ago. chronocaribbeus was orig- land environments today. world’s oceans don’t boil
“What is so remarkable inally an inclusion hidden away, tardigrades will live
Beneath a microscope, is that tardigrades are a in the corner of an amber “We are just scratching on.
tiny tardigrades look like ubiquitous ancient lineage piece with three different the surface when it comes
water bears. Although they that has seen it all on Earth, ant species that our lab to understanding living _________________________
are commonly found in wa- from the fall of the dino- had been studying, and it tardigrade communities, Article: A tardigrade in
ter -- and at times, serving saurs to the rise of terres- wasn’t spotted for months.” especially in places like the Dominican amber
as the nemesis in “Ant-Man trial colonization of plants,” Caribbean where they’ve
and the Wasp” -- tardi- Barden said. “Yet, they Close observational analy- not been surveyed,” said Open Access|The Royal
grades are known for their are like a ghost lineage for sis helped the researchers Barden. “This study pro- Society B.|
ability to survive and even paleontologists with almost determine where the new vides a reminder that, for
thrive in the most extreme no fossil record. Finding any species belongs on the as little as we may have in
environments. tardigrade fossil remains is tardigrade family tree. the way of tardigrade fos-
an exciting moment where sils, we also know very little
These tiny, pudgy ani- we can empirically see their “The fact that we had about the living species on