PZ Myers. 2004 Oct 29. Friday Leanchoilia blogging. <http://pharyngula.org/index/weblog/friday_leanchoilia_blogging/>. Accessed 2008 Dec 01.
Posted on M00o93H7pQ09L8X1t49cHY01Z5j4TT91fGfr on Friday, October 29, 2004
Friday Leanchoilia blogging
Hmmmph. I'm a bit miffed. The New York Times is finding the news so slow (ha!) that they can write fluff about Friday cat blogging by the usual suspects, but week after week I tell you all about much more interesting beasties, and do I get any mention? Noooooo. Just because I'm more interested in things with suckers or spines instead of fur, or antennae instead of eyes, or tentacles instead of paws, or that are dead instead of playing with balls of yarn, I get no respect. Dang pandering felines—you know they're just sucking up to you with that purring crap and that soft, furry pelt.
Now here's an animal with integrity, one with a little self-respect that demands you to love it for what it is. It's called Leanchoilia superlata, a very pretty name. It was a blind arthropod bearing a pair of spectacular "great appendages" on its front end, each with a trio of whiplike lashes. This general layout seems to have been a successful morphological strategy in the Cambrian: Opabinia, Anomalocaris, Yohoia, and Fortiforceps all seem to have adopted the habit of carrying around great whacking claws or knives or clubs as their frontmost appendages. Leanchoilia probably used theirs as sensors, flicking them over the surface in search of prey, and as graspers, clutching their victims to their mouthparts for consumption.
The other distinctive feature is their gut—several papers have been written about the spectacular Leanchoilia gut. It fossilizes unusually well, preserving a fair amount of fine structure, revealing that it is thickly surrounded with glandular tissue. This also suggests a few things about taphonomy.
Phosphatization of soft tissues in the Burgess Shale is restricted to particular taxa, indeed to particular organs of particular taxa. In Leanchoilia, for example, it is limited specifically to the midgut and possible excretory organs on the third podomere of its great appendages. Such specificity suggests that the source of the phosphorus ions was internal, i.e., derived from the organs themselves. Likewise, the absence of any Santana-type preservation of muscle argues convincingly against a significant external source of phosphorus. In this light, it is interesting to note the abundance of unordered “mineral” spherites characteristic of many arthropod midgut glands, sometimes to the extent that they constitute a substantial fraction of the solid feces. Rich in both phosphorous and calcium, these offer a ready source of permineralizing ions, as well as abundant, localized nucleation sites.
Isn't a bizarre chitin-covered nektobenthic predator with guts and half-billion-year-old fossilized poop much more interesting than yet another boring cat?
By the way, at least The Modulator's Friday Ark pays attention to a little zoological diversity. And at least one other person recognizes the intrinsic interest of invertebrates.
Butterfield NJ (2002) Leanchoilia guts and the interpretation of three-dimensional structures in Burgess Shale-type fossils. Paleobiology 28(1):155–171.
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Santana-type preservation of muscle
Does that mean that Santana has aged so well that they use him as the yardstick on preservation or does it mean that he has aged so poorly they regularly use his name when discussing fossils?#: Posted by on 10/29 at 10:44 AM -
Wow! Another invertebrate blogger. Perhaps we should charter a society or somthin'?
The underside of Leancholia is somewhat reminiscent of the underside of the horseshoe crab, which I have a fairly decent picture of from the first edition of Thurdsday Invertebrate Blogging.
Keep up the good work. -
The Burgess Shale is indeed full of truly neat oddballs, but you've had a number of cats on your site too PZ. And there IS something to be said for soft and cuddly. Cat blogging could be a bit more interesting if they expanded their horizons. At times in the past, if it looked like a cat, and acted like a cat, it was probably a Nimravid.
#: Posted by on 10/29 at 11:21 AM
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These things have that perfect kitten-like appeal, Paul. Sooner or later, I'm sure you'll see them in a line of huggable, plush, hypoallergenic "science" toys, and will feel vindicated. Oh, wait, on second look, with those tentacles and with no eyes, they're just about perfect for a low-budget horror movie, "Brain Eaters From Beyond Time!"
BTW, did anyone notice what just happened in Pennsylvania? http://www.hankfox.com -
Isn’t a bizarre chitin-covered nektobenthic predator with guts and half-billion-year-old fossilized poop much more interesting than yet another boring cat?
As a long-time if sadly intermittent invertebrate bloogger, I couldn't agree more.
And now I go check out lobbygow's creepy crawlies.#: Posted by Mrs Tilton on 10/29 at 01:14 PM -
And now I go check out lobbygow’s creepy crawlies.
And, having checked them out, I now urge you all to go do the same.
FWIW, lobbygow, when I was working in New York we lived in Brooklyn, not at all far from you. I'd find S. coleoptrata in the house from time to time, and I certainly did not knowingly import them from Carolina. They were far less irritating then the Mouse Invasion (which we were able to crush only through brutal and vigourous countermeasures).
Ha! Vertebrates -- who needs 'em?#: Posted by Mrs Tilton on 10/29 at 01:20 PM - Well, some invertebrates do need their excreta and effluvia and various fluids and particles from those vertebrates, so maybe we should keep 'em around for a while.
- Heh. I was going to recommend Friday Arachnid Blogging to lovers of invertebrates, but I see Mrs T has already been by.
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Vertebrates as food source...yah gotta love it! Although I once painted a long-tailed weasel for the New York State Museum with two ticks in his ear and they made me remove them!
#: Posted by on 10/29 at 02:01 PM
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"Nektobenthic", eh?
#: Posted by on 10/31 at 04:46 PM