Salamander biography

Paleontologists were excavated in the mid -Yura deposits on the island of Sky in Scotland in the full fossilty of amphibians. Part of the skeleton was found back in the beginning of the x, but at that time the bones were not identified. Paleontological expeditions to Sky Island resumed in the year, and fragments were discovered in M ​​there, which, as it turned out later, make up one whole with the find of the year.

Professor Pavel Petrovich Skrays said that the skeleton was located in several breed blocks that were extracted, scanned on a computer tomograph and visualized in special programs, that is, a 3D reconstruction of each bone of the ancient Earthwater was carried out. Thus, the researchers found that the skeleton belongs to the Salamandra of an previously unknown species from the genus Marmorerpeton.

Representatives of this extinct family lived in the territory of modern Great Britain about - million years ago. Marmor translated from Latin means "marble." Marmorerpeton salamanders got their name in honor of marble quarries, in which the first isolated remnants of these amphibians were discovered. Found on the island of Sky Salamander is very similar to other representatives of Marmorerpeton, but has several significant distinctive features, from which the scientists concluded that the find is a new, previously unknown and not described look.

Paleontologists called him Marmorerpeton Wakei - in memory of David Vake, an American biologist, a Salamander evolution researcher - and wondered where this species should be on a general evolutionary tree and who his closest relatives should be. To answer this question, the researchers compared the signs of Marmorerpeton Wakei with the characteristics of other famous prehistoric salamander.

Paleontologists entered detailed information about each gender and form in a special matrix in the form of digital code. Each figure in it denoted the presence, absence or some other parameters of a particular feature by which animals were compared. The comparative sample includes data on modern salamans that relate to the so -called crown group and their nearest ancestors, as well as about primitive stem amphibians - more archaic than direct ancestors of modern salamander.

Information about the ancient Central Asian and Siberian amphibians for the study was provided by Paleontologists of St. Petersburg State University, who previously found and described these animals. On the basis of the resulting matrix using special computer programs, a new tree of kinship was created, a phylogenetic tree, turned over on the origin of the now living tailed amphibians - an idea of ​​the related connections of all the salamander and the early stages of their evolution.

It turned out that part of the tailed amphibians, which were considered crown, that is, the oldest representatives of modern salamander, are actually more primitive and belong to the stem group.

Paleontologists believe that new knowledge about salamandra is very important, because these animals are interesting in terms of their ability to regenerate parts of the body and even organs. For example, they regenerate not only the tail and paws, but also the spinal cord, part of the brain, the lens of the eyes, internal organs. If you understand how this happens, humanity may learn to use these mechanisms.

In addition, studying the salamander, you can find out how the first ground -based vertebrates with paws moved and how some organisms are in the form of larvae all their lives and at the same time give offspring. For example, individual amphibians, after hatching from eggs, can be equally likely to dwell in development at the larval stage and stay in water or turn into an adult individual and go to land.

This ability is not observed in any of the vertebrates. According to the press service of St. Petersburg University and the magazine The Conversation. Read at any time.