Searching through museum archives can often be quite a lifeless task, especially when you're sorting through tons of tons of samples of faded white seashells that went extinct millions of years ago. But with a little bit of ingenuity, and whole heap of incentive, some researchers with San Jose State University are bringing life back to these ancient species and giving us a technicolor look as what the seas may have been like 6.6 million years ago.
In a new study published this week in the journal PLOS ONE, lead researcher Jonathan Hendricks from San Jose State University reveals the true original appearance and coloration of more than 28 different species of cone shells through the use of intense exposure to ultraviolet (UV) light. Though the shells may not appear to be patterned or colored like their modern relatives, by exposing the shells to UV light the 4.8-6.6 million-year-old fossils reveal their true nature as it was when the creatures were alive.
"The biology of modern Conidae (cone snails) has been intensively studied, but the fossil record of the clade remains poorly understood, particularly within an evolutionary framework" Hendricks says. "Here, ultraviolet light is used to reveal and characterize the original shell coloration patterns of 28 species of cone snails from three Neogene coral reef-associated deposits from the Cibao Valley, northern Dominican Republic."
"Finally, most of the 28 species can be assigned to modern clades and thus have important implications for understanding the biogeographic and temporal histories of these clades in tropical America."
Of the 28 species studied from the northern Dominican Republic, 13 appear to be entirely new species adding to the researchers' vast understanding of how ancient species relate to modern species in the Caribbean. The study is an excellent example of innovation in the sciences that leads to an entirely new view, although the researchers still are unsure which compounds in the shell matrix emit the light they see when they are exposed to UV rays.
