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You’ve Heard Of Water Bears, But How About These Ancient Mould Pigs?

Newly discovered prehistoric creatures don't fit into any known animal group

by George Dvorsky - October 9, 2019

An analysis of 30-million-year-old amber has resulted in the discovery of a previously unknown microscopic creature from the Cenozoic period. Bearing a resemblance to tardigrades (aka water bears), these now-extinct “mould pigs,” as they’ve been dubbed, are unlike anything seen before.

Introducing Sialomorpha dominicana, a newly discovered microinvertebrate found locked in amber from the Dominican Republic. Its discoverers, paleobiologist George Poinar Jr. from Oregon State University and invertebrate zoologist Diane Nelson from East Tennessee State University, have dubbed the creature a “mould pig” in honour of its portly, porcine appearance and its diet, which consisted primarily of fungi. Details of the discovery were recently published in Invertebrate Biology.

The 83-year-old Poinar is no stranger to working with fossils trapped in amber. His 1982 research paper gave sci-fi author Michael Crichton the idea of extracting dinosaur DNA from insects trapped in amber, as portrayed in the film Jurassic Park...

Read more: https://www.gizmodo.com.au/2019/10/youve-heard-of-water-bears-but-how-about-these-ancient-mold-pigs/

Sources:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sialomorpha

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/ivb.12265

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