strike by Charles Darwin , the condition “ living fossil ” is used to identify life creatures that have brook the test of sentence — hardy and resilient organisms that have stay on largely unchanged for millions of age . Here are some of of the most incredible example of nature not mend what ai n’t break .
Top double : Comb Jelly . citation : Stefan Siebert / Brown University
To be clear , “ living dodo ” is not a scientific term per se , and there ’s no consensus on a conventional definition . But for the purposes of this clause , we ’re going to specify a living fossil as an ancient metal money that ( 1 ) has n’t gone nonextant , ( 2 ) has not produced , or “ diversify , ” many new species ( i.e. small taxonomic variety ) , and ( 3 ) has remained relatively unaltered over the course of millennia .
On this last point , that ’s not to hint these animals have n’t stopped evolve ( which is a kind of myth relate with subsist fogy ) . All organisms , no matter how old , have continually adapt to changing environments , include rising and falling temperatures , changes in atmospherical physical composition , and other refreshing stipulation . But for the most part , these species have settle on environmental niches in which geomorphological form and behavioural modes have n’t required a destiny of tweaking . In many cases , they ’ve attained a seaworthiness peak in surroundings that continually reinforce a sure animalism .
There are literally dozens upon dozens of living fossil , but these are some of the most riveting :
1. Cyanobacteria
Though not often regard a living fossil , cyanobacteria have been kicking around for practically forever and will continue to do so well into the future . In fact , like many other strains of bacteria , they’reone of the most successful groups of organisms this major planet has ever determine , and admit some of the first life forms to evolve on Earth . Stromatolites — superimposed social organisation formed in shallow water by the housing , binding , and cementation of microorganism , especially cyanobacteria — provide the most ancient records of life on Earth dating back an astounding 3.5 billion age .
https://gizmodo.com/the-eight-super-adaptable-life-forms-that-rule-our-plan-5939568
Image stromatolites in Shark Bay , Wikimedia Commons .
2. Ctenophores
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bW3sqB …
But if cancerous tumor are not our great - grandparent , these guys most certainly are . Also known as the cockscomb jelly , ctenophores first emerged 700 million twelvemonth ago . They look like strip jelly blobs that flit through the sea motivate by rows of cilia . Biologists say these arethe oldest know animals — andnot ocean parazoan as previously believed — meaning we ’re actually descend from these thing . And most noteworthy of all , as a living dodo , they ’re still kicking around .
3. Coelacanths
We used to think that Latimeria chalumnae go extinct around the same time as the dinosaurs , about 65 million eld ago . But their “ re - find ” in 1938 off the glide of South Africa reset our notions of how indestructible some mintage truly are . Latimeria chalumnae have been traced as far back as 80 million year ago , and were at one time a with child group comprising about 90 different coinage . Today , there are two known mintage living in universe that have been branch for at least several million years .
Coelacanths have some unique features that are n’t seen in any other live vertebrate , including a rostral organ in the neb that ’s part of its electrosensory system , and an intracranial joint or hinge in the skull that allow the prior portion of the braincase to swing over upwards , greatly enlarge the gape of the mouth . [ rootage ]
4. Elephant Sharks
Credit : Byrappa Venkatesh
locate off the water system of Australia and New Zealand , elephant sharks , or Callorhinchus milii , are members of a offset of cartilaginous fish known as chimaeras . They ’re distantly related to sharks and electron beam , so technically speaking they ’re not really shark . Recently , scientist map the genome of this creature , unveil DNA that ’s barely changed for nearly 420 million age . To put that into perspective , dinosaur did n’t emerge until the Triassic period , some 230 million age ago . Owing to this newfangled analysis , elephant sharks are the slowest - evolving vertebrate we bang of .
5. Crocodiles
Credit : Rob Brookes .
crocodile have a good matter go . They ’re essentially the Orcinus orca app ofpredators — creature that rest in water body waiting for theirpreyto fall to them . Cuz eventually , everybody ’s get ta grab a drink . It ’s an evolutionary strategy that ’s worked for millennia ( I often care to think of the various fauna crocodile have feasted upon — from ancient lizards and dinosaurs all the way up to modern mammalian ) . Descended frommarine super - predators(of course of action ) , they made their first dreaded appearing some 55 million years ago . Today , saltwater crocodile are the largest of all living reptile and are the prominent telluric peak predators in the earthly concern .
https://gizmodo.com/why-prey-animals-are-some-of-the-most-badass-creatures-1447763547
https://gizmodo.com/9-predators-with-the-most-brutal-hunting-techniques-510100768
6. Horseshoe Crabs
Horseshoe crabs are the quintessential bread and butter fossils . They look like something right out of an esthetic rendering of the Cambrian Explosion .
Credit : Heinrich Harder / Florilegius
These atavistic creatures , which can still be found today crawling around muddy ocean floor , first emerged in the belated Ordovician period of time some 450 million long time ago . They resemble crustaceans , but they ’re part of the Chelicerata subphylum , so they ’re more closely associate to arachnoid , like spider and Scorpio . Despite surviving a number of mass extinction , their numbers are now declining because of habitat destruction in Japan and overharvesting along the east coast of North America .
7. Fig Wasps
Back in the 1920s , a 34 million - class - old fossil of a figure wasp was discovered , but falsely identify as an ant . The fogy was re - analyzed back in 2010 , revealing its true identity — an extant mintage that has barely changed for tens of zillion of years . Remarkably , fig white Anglo-Saxon Protestant and Ficus carica trees have been evolving together for over 60 million old age . As the University of Leedsreported :
The eatable figs we eat today are produced on specialize distaff plants that flim-flam the wasps into accede the figs and divest off their wing , but then prevent them from laying any eggs . As a answer , the fig produce only ejaculate and no wasp progeny . The length of the ovipositor – the Hammond organ the wasp use to lie its eggs – of the Isle of White Libyan Fighting Group wasp testify that its host fig tree had already evolve this method acting of cheating on its better half .
Remarkably , Al-Jama’a al-Islamiyyah al-Muqatilah bi-Libya white Anglo-Saxon Protestant can travel further than any other insect , covering 100 miles in two days . Image quotation : Robert F. Sisson / National Geographic .
8. Ginkgo Biloba
Credit : Fossil Museum
If there was ever a germ plant that deserves the claim of “ life fossil ” it is the maidenhair fern Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree , or Ginkgo biloba . The plant is aboriginal to China and has no living relatives . Fossilized folio imprints of this tree have been witness in aqueous rock’n’roll of the Jurassic and Triassic Periods date 135 to 210 million year ago — a metre when dinosaurs still cast the earth . The unique , fan - shaped leaves and naked seeded player of living Ginkgo biloba tree have changed very little in more than 200 million geezerhood . Today , when take as an extract , Ginkgo biloba is used to ameliorate memory and concentration .
9. Cycads
cycad are remarkable seed plants that flourished during the Clarence Shepard Day Jr. of the dinosaur . In fact , they were so legion during Mesozoic times ( 65 to 230 million days ago ) , this earned run average is sometimes referred to as the “ Age of Cycads and Dinosaurs . ” cycad have a slow - originate columnar tree trunk that ’s 3 to 50 feet grandiloquent , and a cap of leaves that superficially resemble a palm . Its seed can reach three feet in duration and are the big of all cone - bearing plants . Some monolithic ejaculate can weigh up to 95 pounds . Today , cycad population are seriously threaten with extinction due to extensive collecting and diminishing habitat . [ rootage ]
10. P. Palau Cave Eel
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aOXiDj …
This eel wasonly recently discoveredin a cave 35 metre submerged in the Republic of Palau . It ’s so unlike other eel - corresponding critter that it forced biologists to create a whole raw kinsfolk to trace it : Protoanguillidae . Analysis of the fish showed that it has develop severally for over 200 million years , ensue in the retention of a large read/write head , myopic consistency , and apprehension - like gill openings . In fact , some of the laundry list of different feature are so primitive that they ’re deemed old than the most ancient fogey remains , such as have few than 90 vertebra .
11. Nautilus
Credit : Wikimedia
These nautical mollusks have remained for the most part unchanged for 500 million eld . They first appeared in the belated Cambrian period and became a significant group of ocean vulture during the Ordovician period . They ’re the sole living cephalopods ( a mathematical group that includes octopus ) whose bony eubstance structure is objectify as a shell . And interestingly , they ’re much closer to the first cephalopods that appeared 500 million years ago than the early modern cephalopod mollusk that appeared about 100 million years later .
12. Cancerous Tumors
persona : Sebastian Kaulitzki / Shutterstock .
This is a scrap controversial , but some scientist have proposed thatcancerous cells measure up as living fossils — the last remnant of a all-important evolutionary juncture some 600 million years ago . It ’s been surmise that cancer dates back to the outset of multicellular brute , an evolutionary innovation that required cells to stop retroflex independently and start coordinating with the balance of the being . But grant to Charles Lineweaver and Paul Davies , it ’s cancer that ’s our earliest animate being ancestor . They suggest these being were the first to reckon out some measure of ascendence over electric cell replication , but they lacked more exact control over cellular telephone growth .
https://gizmodo.com/cancerous-tumors-might-be-our-oldest-evolutionary-ances-5781614
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