A new species of fairy shrimp that flutter around in the fresh water habitats of Australia around 100 million years ago has been chance on in theKoonwarra Fossil Bed . Despite its advanced historic period , it was able to show off a remarkable skill in the fogey record as researchers behind the find have conclude that the crustacean could reproduce throughparthenogenesis .
Reproducing without the want for a male , known as parthenogeny , is a reproductive strategy employed by plants and even some animals . Most recentlycondorsandsharksjoined the ranks of sans - manlike baby - making animals , and now so too does our ancient fay peewee , Koonwarrella peterorum , whose discovery was write inAlcheringa .
So how does one detect virgin birth in an animal that ’s been extinct since the Cretaceous ? You take care at its rubble , of course of instruction .
attend for manlike genitalia or sexual union equipment such as the grasping transmitting aerial that relative ofK. peterorumare known to apply is a good place to pop out when taste to place new species on the evolutionary tree , simply because they are gentle spot . However , here , meditate first author Emma Van Houte gather something of a wall as there did n’t appear to be any .
tightlipped inspection of the 40 juvenile and pornographic distaff specimens ofK. peterorumalso revealed no evidence of hermaphrodism ( an animal with both sets of genitalia ) or shrimps halfway through switching from male to female . This , combined with the presence of egg pouches , direct toward the out species reproducing asexually through parthenogeny .
Fairy half-pint reproducing in this way is n’t without precedent as there ’s another , extant pansy runt species in Australia that can reproduce without male . Handy , since male in the universe are very rare , but it ’s not these shrimp ’s exclusive agency of reproducing as they will match sexually if the chance arises .
The Koonwarra Fossil Bed in Australia , where the 40 fairy peewee specimens were recollect , is something of a treasure trove for ancient beasties big and small , and in capital item . The weather have even preserveddinosaur feathers(see them in action inPrehistoric Planet ) , alongside worm , Pisces the Fishes , and aquatic invertebrates .
The remarkable saving at the land site also keep critter as small as sprite shrimp in effective enough gouge to allow scientists to addK. peterorumto the parthenogenesis cash register . In its flower , the ancient fairy peewee would n’t have looked much like shrimp as we lean to intend of them today but instead more like the extremophile brine shrimp , better known assea monkeys .
[ H / T : Live Science ]
