VOLCANO MADNESS: Re: [Geology2] Re: Oldest Fossils Found in Cordillera Bética Mountain Range

Wednesday, December 15, 2010

Re: [Geology2] Re: Oldest Fossils Found in Cordillera Bética Mountain Range

Excellent post, Robert!!! Thanks for taking the time and finding all this info. I, for one, really appreciate your research. :-)

Lin

On Wed, Dec 15, 2010 at 11:36 AM, <robert-blau@webtv.net> wrote:

VERY interesting creatures these conodonts, as is their paleontology:

Conodont - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conodont

Palaeos Vertebrates 30.000 Conodonta:
Overview
http://www.palaeos.com/Vertebrates/Units/030Conodonta/030.000.html

Pre-Dino Toothy Marine Animals Revealed : Discovery News
http://news.discovery.com/dinosaurs/pre-dino-toothy-marine-animals-revealed.html

What are Conodonts?
http://www.wisegeek.com/what-are-conodonts.htm

Conodont Collection, James Davison
http://www.conodont.info/

Conodont
http://geology.er.usgs.gov/eespteam/smoky/ResearchAreas/smokys/cadesCove/GISData/bycategory/conondants.htm

Conodonts
http://www.ucl.ac.uk/GeolSci/micropal/conodont.html

Conodonts-Microfossils-Collections-NPL-Texas Natural Science...
https://www.utexas.edu/tmm/npl/microfossils/conodonts.html

"I ust wanted you to know"

Lin the penguin lady wrote:

*Spanish researchers have found fossils of Ordovician conodonts dating
to
between 446 and 444 million years ago for the first time in the western
Mediterranean. (Credit: Rodríguez-Cañero et al.)*

Oldest Fossils Found in Cordillera Bética Mountain Range

ScienceDaily (Dec. 14, 2010) — Spanish researchers have found fossils
of
Ordovician conodonts dating to between 446 and 444 million years ago for
the
first time in the western Mediterranean. The discovery of these very
primitive marine vertebrates has helped scientists to reconstruct the
palaeogeography of the Cordillera Bética mountain range. Their study
shows that the mountain system in the south of the Iberian Peninsula was
located alongside the Alps at that time.

In 2006, a group of Andalusian geologists found the oldest fossils in
the Cordillera Bética, dating from the late Ordovician period between
446 and 444 million years ago, in the Maláguide Complex in Ardales
(Malaga). This was also the first solid evidence of Ordovician rocks in
the Bética range.

"The importance of this finding stems not only from the age of the
fossils and the fact they make it possible to date the age of the
materials they contain, but also from the valuable information they
provide to help us reconstruct the tectonic history, the
palaeogeography, and the geological
history of the Cordillera Bética," Rosario Rodríguez-Cañero, lead
author of the study and a researcher at the Department of Stratigraphy
and Palaeontology of the University of Granada, said.

The study, which has been published in the latest issue of the journal
*Terra
Nova*, says that the fossils of conodonts, which are very rare and
difficult
to find, are "an essential tool" for unravelling the geological history
of
the Bética mountains and learning about the features of the
environment in
which they developed and the thermal history of the rocks in which they
are
found.

The researchers analysed the characteristics of the conodont remains
they found, the presence of certain species, and the absence of others,
and
compared these with others of a similar age found in the macizo
ibérico
(essentially the western half of the Iberian Peninsula) and other ranges
in
the area.

The results of the study show that, during the late Ordovician period,
the
Maláguide Complex was not to be found with the rest of the Iberian
Peninsula
along the edge of the palaeo-continent of Gondwana, "but was rather at a
much lower latitude much closer to the Alps, with its Ordovician
conodont
fauna showing much closer similarities to the fauna of this area," says
Rodríguez-Cañero.

*Tiny and essential fossils*

The conodonts were small, eel-shaped animals without any vertebral
column,
which measured a few tenths of a millimetre in length, and inhabited the
seas during the Palaeozoic era and became extinct at the end of the
Triassic
(around 205 million years ago).
The fossilised remains usually found are not complete conodonts, but
rather
pieces of less than one millimetre in size, with a phosphate composition
similar to that of vertebrate teeth. The conodonts had these in the
cephalic
region and used them to catch and grind up their food.

"These teeth were the only mineralised pieces of conodonts, meaning they
are
generally the only remains to have fossilised, although complete
conodont
fossils have been found in other parts of the world," the geologist
explains.

The fossils found by the research team are not only the oldest in the
Cordillera Bética, but are also the first remains of Ordovidician
conodonts found in the entire western Mediterranean, from Gibraltar to
the south of Italy.

*Story Source:*
The above story is reprinted (with editorial adaptations by
Science*Daily*staff) from materials provided by
*Plataforma SINC* <http://www.plataformasinc.es/>, via
AlphaGalileo<http://www.alphagalileo.org/>
.
------------------------------
*Journal Reference*:
1. Rodriguez-Canero, R.; Martín-Algarra, A.; Sarmiento, G.N.;
Navas-Parejo, P. *First Late Ordovician conodont fauna in the Betic
Cordillera (South Spain): a palaeobiogeographical contribution*. *Terra
Nova*, 22(5): 330-340
Plataforma SINC. "Oldest fossils found in Cordillera Bética mountain
range."
*ScienceDaily* 14 December 2010. 14 December 2010 <*
http://www.sciencedaily.com /releases/2010/12/101213071113.htm*>.