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Spiny ancestor of all insects, spiders and crabs discovered

reconstruction of Diania cactiformis, Jianni Liu

Berlin researchers of the Museum of Natural History and the Free University under the direction of the Humboldt scholarship Liu Jianni have an exceptional, described
520 million years old fossil found in China in the international journal "Nature". This discovery shows for the first time, for any ancestors of insects, spiders developed, crabs and millipedes. This can be finally answered the question of the origin of the most diverse animal group on earth, the arthropods.

Around 540 million years ago almost all animal phyla appeared suddenly, what scientists call the "Cambrian explosion". Then as now, are the arthropods (Arthropoda), the largest animal group on earth dar. The origin of this large group has always been an open question, but now it is clear that the source is to be found in animals, scientists call for the ringed legs "Lobopodia. This Lobopoden looked like worms with legs. The authors of the Nature article describes an unusual, about 6 cm long and 520 million year old fossil found in China, Diania cactiformis. It is the closest relative of the arthropod. His legs, which for the first time have the typical breakdown of Arthropodenbeine, make it a milestone in the evolution, explains the success of insects, spiders, centipedes and crustaceans.

The scientific name of the new fossil is from the cactus-like appearance of the strong spined body derived, which earned him the international working group the nickname "walking cactus.

collaborate For years scientists at the Free University of Berlin with Chinese colleagues. The German-Chinese research team, led by Dr. Liu Jianni discovered the fossil of the famous Chengjiang site in southwestern China. The project, which has been essentially bereichet by the expertise of the Zoological Museum of Natural History, was the fellowship of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation and the Chinese Science Foundation enables and funded by the German Research Foundation.

Published in: Liu, J., Steiner, M., Dunlop, JA, Keupp, H., Shu, D., Ou, Q., Han, J., Zhang, Z., Zhang, X. 2011th An armored Cambrian lobopodian from China with arthropod-like appendages. - Nature, February, 24, 2011th doi: 10.1038/nature09704 occasion

via Information Wissenschaft