Scientists havediscovereda 305 - million - year - one-time fogey of an nonextant harvestman coinage in easterly France , but unlike modern daylight harvestmen which have only one hardening of centre , this specimen had two . The results have been published in the journalCurrent Biology .
Fossil positioning is key in recognizing evolutionary changeover and deciphering the order in which a particular gadget characteristic was acquired in being of interest . Harvestmen are arachnid belong to the orderOpiliones , and over 6,300 species have been discover in every continent across the globe apart from Antarctica . harmonise to author Dr Russell Garwood of the University of Manchester , although harvestmen may look similar to spiders , they are actually more nearly bear on to Scorpio the Scorpion . While mod twenty-four hour period daddy longlegs have only one set of eye , other forward-looking arachnids such as spiders may have more than one pair .
scientist from the University of Manchester and the American Museum of Natural History used X - beam of light imaging to examine this exceptionally preserved fossil . They name that the specimen , namedHastocularis argus , had a pair of eyes at the gist of the body as well as at the side of the body , whereas forward-looking harvestmen only own a bent at the centerfield . This four - eyed harvestman fogey may therefore help to shed light on the evolution of this divers order of animals .
The team also examined gene expression in extant harvestmen embryos and chance grounds which suggested that develop modernistic harvestmen embryos have remnant of this now - lose second set of heart .
Since Phalangium opilio do not fossilize well , the determination of this specimen presented exciting chance to make illation on the organic evolution of these brute . According to Dr Garwood “ Harvestmen dodo keep up in three dimensions are quite rare and our 10 - electron beam techniques have allowed us to reveal this prodigious fossil in more detail than we would have dreamed potential just a match of decades ago . ” Fossils such as these are therefore critical in read the morphological evolution of groups of animals .
