Paleontologists have made a fascinating discovery in New York State: fossil remains of an ancient species of arthropod that existed approximately 450 million years ago, whose preservation is exceptional thanks to a unique fossilization process that involved the infiltration of pyrite, commonly known as “fool’s gold”.
This new species, named Lomankus edgecombei, belongs to an extinct group of arthropods known as Megacheira and is distantly related to horseshoe crabs, scorpions, and spiders. The discovery, in addition to its unusual golden color, provides a revealing glimpse into the early evolution of marine ecosystems.
Unlike its modern relatives, Lomankus edgecombei lacked eyes and had small front limbs specially adapted to explore the marine sediment in the darkness of ancient oceans that once covered what is now New York State. Over centuries, the fossil was preserved in Beecher’s Bed, a fossil-rich site near Rome, New York, where sediment with high pyrite content allowed for the specimen’s exceptional fossilization.
This mineral, due to its metallic properties, gradually replaced the organism’s soft parts before they decomposed, preserving key anatomical details that provide valuable information about marine life in the Ordovician period, hundreds of millions of years ago.
Professor Derek Briggs, curator at Yale University’s Peabody Museum and co-author of a new study published in Current Biology, highlights the significance of this preservation. These remarkable fossils show how the rapid replacement of delicate anatomical features in pyrite before decomposition preserves critical evidence of life’s evolution in oceans 450 million years ago, he noted.
The structure of Lomankus has been reconstructed using computed tomography, allowing precise observation of its morphological details and its distinctive golden color, resulting from pyrite infiltration into its tissues.
From an evolutionary perspective, Lomankus edgecombei is significant in several respects. The Megacheira, the group it belongs to, are known for having adaptable heads and specialized limbs that varied based on their needs, as seen today in scorpion claws or spider fangs. In the case of Lomankus, its front limbs have a particular structure formed by three long, flexible whip-like flagella, which it likely used to sense its surroundings and search for food. Professor Luke Parry, another author of the study, emphasizes that this anatomical versatility is comparable to a biological Swiss army knife, enabling arthropods to adapt effectively to their environment.
Moreover, the fossils of Lomankus challenge previous theories about the survival period of Megacheira. Until now, it was thought that this group of arthropods mostly went extinct at the end of the Cambrian period, around 485 million years ago. However, the discovery of Lomankus edgecombei shows that some managed to survive and diversify into the Ordovician period, extending their existence and adapting to a changing world.
The recent reappearance of these fossils in research is due to Yu Liu, a paleontologist at Yunnan University in China, who obtained the remains from a Chinese collector and contacted Briggs for study. Collaboration with Parry, a former student of Briggs, made it possible to use advanced computed tomography technology to obtain three-dimensional images of the fossil, highlighting the anatomical details of Lomankus edgecombei and thus revealing a three-dimensional image that captures its striking golden color, a legacy of the pyrite that preserved it.
SOURCES
Luke A. Parry, Derek E.G. Briggs, et al., A pyritized Ordovician leanchoiliid arthropod. Current Biology (2024). doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2024.10.013
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