‘Breath of life’ is found in a tiny fossil – with help of city scientists
TODAY’S DIARIST
A BEAUTIFULLY-preserved fossil crustacean, 430 million years old and displaying its respiratory organs in exquisite detail, has been discovered by a team including scientists from Leicester.
The international team, which also included experts from Yale, Oxford and London, came across the rare and exceptionally well-preserved tiny crustacean in 430 million-year-old rocks in Herefordshire.
The fossil is a new species of ostracod, a relative of crabs and shrimps and is just a few millimetres long.
This particular fossil preserves not just the animal’s hard shell but also its limbs, eyes, gut and gills. Examples of exceptional preservation in ostracods, in which soft-parts are also preserved in the fossil record, are exceedingly rare. The respiratory sys- tem includes five pairs of gills with canals that, in life, conveyed essential fluids. The implication is that a heart had likely evolved in representatives of this common group of micro-crustaceans by at least 430 million years ago.
The specimen has been given the name Spiricopia aurita, from the Latin words for “breath of life”, “abundance” and “ears”.
Professor David Siveter, from the University of Leicester’s School of Geography, Geology and the Environment, said: “This is an exciting and rare find, in which the soft parts of the animal are preserved, as well as its shell. In almost all cases such fleshy structures are denied to the fossil record. It gives us a tantalising window into the palaeobiology of the animal and yields knowledge about important organ-systems and associated metabolic activities in what is a widespread group of fossil and living arthropods.”
S aurita lived in a sea that covered much of southern Britain and beyond during the Silurian period (about 443420 million years ago). An influx of volcanic ash entombed the animals living there and they were fossilised and preserved intact within hard calcareous nodules.
The fossil was recovered from its host rock using a digital reconstruction technique that involves grinding down the actual fossil and rock, layer by wafer-thin layer, and then producing a virtual fossil.
Funded by the Natural Environment Research Council, the Leverhulme Trust, Oxford University Museum of Natural History and Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History, the research has been published in the Royal Society journal Biology Letters.
Professor David Siveter’s co-authors are Professor Derek Briggs (Yale), Professor Derek Siveter (Oxford) and Dr Mark Sutton (Imperial College London).
As part of the Hold My Light campaign, we have checked in with Sarah-Jane Thomas – one of our five smokers who signed up to quit cigarettes with a little support from the people around them – to see how she has got on after her first smoke-free week.
Sarah-Jane, 28, has had a mixed week since signing up to the holdmylight .co.uk challenge.
Although she managed to successfully get through her first week with the encouragement of her boyfriend and supporter Leo Feldman, 29, she hit a stumbling block a few days later on a night out with the girls and gave in to the temptation of a few cigarettes.
She said: “My guard was down and because Leo, who is acting as my supporter, wasn’t with me, I didn’t have anyone with me to keep me on track.
“I felt so guilty the next day and absolutely regretted it.”
But Sarah-Jane is determined not to let one blip prevent her from achieving her ultimate goal of going smoke-free.
She said: “I know where I went wrong, so will now put a plan in place so I don’t fall into the same situation again. I’m going to avoid any heavy social nights out in the short term, and make sure when I next have a few drinks Leo is with me, as he really is a tower of strength.
“Besides which, as well as being desperate to go smoke-free, I’m determined that Leo will stick to his end of the bargain to take me to the theatre once I’ve managed to complete the 30 days.”
He’s not the only one offering support. Sarah-Jane’s colleagues have also been spurring her on while she has been at work, and gently encouraging her to stay on track. She said: “It does really help when you have the backing of people around you. They get you through the day and really spur you on.”
Hold My Light is centred around enrolling friends, family or colleagues to help smokers give up cigarettes, as it’s been documented that one-to-one-support is the most popular tool for quitting.*
Sarah-Jane added: “I know they will be my backbone over the next few weeks and I have no doubt they will stop me from having another blip.”
Research has shown that if you quit smoking for four weeks, you are five times more likely to quit smoking for good.**