The researchers managed to find eight new species of crustaceans are still intact, including the spider crab (spider crab, a kind of large sea crab) are known to be living 100 million years ago, the fossil coral found in the north of Spain.
The fossils were found in a remote area of excavation Koskobilo, along with a number of decapod (types of animals such as crabs, shrimp, and lobster). Two species of spider crab is the oldest, Cretamaja granulata and Koskobilius postangustus much older than previously recorded, says the author of his research, Adiel Klompmaker, a researcher at the Florida Museum of Natural History at the University of Florida.
"The oldest species previously found to originate from France and a few million years younger," said Adiel told LiveScience, about the spider crab. "Discovery in Spain is pretty awesome and offered insight into the origin of spider crab from a variety of fossils."
Cretamaja granulate has a length of 15 millimeters and has a typical crab spiders, including two aberrant spine out of his rostrum (an additional part of the shell or in the skin, which is located in front of the eye) and form a skin on top of its shell. Fossil spider crabs also have a spine on the front side of the body.
Place of fossil corals were found apparently disappeared shortly after the creature alive. "Something is happening in the environment that causes corals in the area destroyed, and with it, there may be many decapods living reef," said Adiel. "Not much in the next decapods were found after the reef destroyed," said Adiel, who describes her findings in the journal "Cretaceous Research" forthcoming issue.
With a team of researchers from the United States, the Netherlands and Spain, Adiel collecting fossils in the dig Koskobilo in 2008, 2009 and 2010.
"We visited the place in 2008 and in the first two hours we found the two species," said Adiel in a statement. "It was amazing, it was something that rarely happens."
With the new discovery, 36 species of decapod known to have lived at the excavation site which was uninhabited, making the place as one of the locations where the most diverse living decapods during the Cretaceous period (145 to 66 million years ago), Adiel said.
The researchers also found that there are many types of ancient decapods that live on the reef, where they breed well compared to other places in the ocean.
"One of the main results of this study is that there are many species of decapods that live in the reefs during the Cretaceous, Adiel wrote in an email. "The appearance of coral are considered triggers decapod diversity in early 100 million years ago and became a nest for the species."
Last year Adiel reported the discovery of fossils of small lobsters that live together in mollusc shells known as "ammonoid". Lobsters were living together were found in a quarry in southern Germany rocky, the findings show that these creepy crustaceans lived about 180 million years ago, a period when small crustaceans live.
"This is the oldest example of the socialization behavior in the fossil record, and not just lobsters but all decapod groups - including lobster, shrimp, and crabs," said Adiel, who was then at Kent State University. "What was revealed from the findings of this kind of behavior in groups can be very beneficial in the early stages of the evolution of crustaceans."
Adiel also part of the team that discovered a crab penyindiri at the same excavation site, named after Michael Jackson (Mesoparapylocheles michaeljacksoni), because it was found when the singer died.
LiveScience.com By Jeanna Bryner
