Bizarre Creature Found in 200 Million Year Old Cocoon

What a fantastic find. I wish I was able to examine it myself. I can only imagine how much info has been safely stored in that cocoon, so exciting.

reply to post by smyleegrl


Looks Like my Great Great Great Great Great Great Grandfathers Sperm!

Really!

Cool thread.

Lets hope this isn't an uncovered ancient virus o doom.

This reminds me of a freshwater ecology class I took years ago. You might be surprised at all the tiny life in the water and mud. It's really amazing! Though... after counting leeches per square foot, I will never go creek stomping or swimming in a pond again... well... not barefoot anyway! I wonder how the leech was preserved?

Looks like a hungover, unemployed ATS loser sleeping till noon on a Monday in mom and dad's basement. ROFLMAO!

Originally posted by shambles84
sorry bit off topic but always annoys me how interesting threads like this get no attention but yet the " my mom turned into a zombie threads " get like a bazillion stars n flags . c`mon people .

What is there to say really besides, ooh ahh nice find wow amazing cool...

I nearly lost my lunch when I read "found in mucus"...virus like today's tape worm instantly came to mind. Interesting find. Just about lost my lunch again trying to find a photo of a tape worm to share. Ixnay on that idea.

Interesting concept on virus killing off the dinos.

Originally posted by shambles84
sorry bit off topic but always annoys me how interesting threads like this get no attention but yet the " my mom turned into a zombie threads " get like a bazillion stars n flags . c`mon people .

LOL its the top story on the main page.....haha

Originally posted by smyleegrl
Past research has suggested this coiled stalk, which is used to attach to substrates, may be one of the fastest cellular engines known, changing from a telephone wire-like structure to a tight coil at a speed of about 8 centimeters (3.1 inches) per second -- the equivalent of a human being walking the across more than three football fields in one second

How could scientist know how fast it coils?

reply to post by smyleegrl


There are quite a few horror flicks that start out exactly like this. A discovery in the boonies by scientists who are all excited about studying it. There is probably one hipster looking science guy with Buddy Holly glasses who says something along the lines of "Uh, the dinosaurs were killed by something like this." or "Life always finds a way... TO KILL"... with a close up of him smoking a designer cigarette.

The next scene invariably has the chick that's actually hot (once she takes her glasses off) and some nerdy guy (hiding a six-pack under his lab coat) and they'll either have some flirty banter about how this discovery will make them famous or they will just have sex on the lab table. If the latter happens, something dangerous will happen to the creature while they are distracted.

In any case, the thing gets loose and starts a new dynasty of super-duper flu and kills of the world. The end. Oh, and the president is always black in those movies. Hmmm...

Looks delicious...we should eat it and gain its magics

or study it and figure out how we too can live for 200m years...

(with no cable)

200 million years old huh ? Well that would certainly make it a relic.

reply to post by Cuervo


PROMETHYOUS!!!!! OOOOMMMMGGGG!!!!

reply to post by smyleegrl


Well, this little critter looks like an early cousin to the "stalked ciliate". Wastewater Treatment operators rely on ciliates such as "vorticella" to help treat the waste that is flushed to wastewater plants every day. At a lot of the plants one of the ways to tell well your process is doing is to take a look at the critters under a microscope. The ratios of the different micro-organisms will tell you a lot. I used to get a kick out of watching these guys coil up and "spring" on their stalks.
Here is a picture of a "modern day" stalked ciliate.


Not so foreign...you see...

Mike

reply to post by Violater1

My first impression when seeing this was this

A Virus

Im pretty sure the picture you posted is a phage / bacteriophage and not a virus.

reply to post by smyleegrl


very awesome...I know, those two words don't flow all that great, but I needed a unique superlative from my normal ones for this! This will be my second flag of the day, i'm more of a once-a-month flag kinda guy (cell phone is my normal access method and it just takes that extra blackberry-slllloooow step. That's my way of saying thank you for an awesome post, bringing to my attention.

3 things from this for me:

1) the awareness of the find itself. Just another tidbit of ancient knowledge to wonder and muse at.

2) got my gears going about looking into the ancient "world maps" again - I'd love globes from different time periods in my basement/home office

3) can engineers learn something from this? Some of our most advanced tech has borrowed from nature (example, stealth bomber - manta ray)...could there be a city bus running on a couple of solar panels using a drive based on this little guy's movement?

Originally posted by haven123
if its a virus maby thats what did away with dinosaurs

It is not virus as you can (not so clearly) read in or. article: "And like all eurkaryotes, the organism was equipped with a nucleus ...". Eukaryotes are single cell organisms usually bit bigger and more complex then bacteria. Main difference between prokaryotes (bacteria, ... ) and eukaryotes is that later have nuclei. Viri are much much smaller then the smallest single cell organisms.

I think this discovery fits in well with the other thread about life found in places where scientists didn't think life was possible. We think of life as humans, animals and plants - not little tiny organisms like this guy!

THE ALIEN FROM PROMETHEUS

Originally posted by smyleegrl
Here's a pic of the little critter

Enjoy!

I was in awe at first. Until I saw how small this organism actually is. Is there not thousands of unknown organisms such as this?