| Literature DB >> 20975721 |
Paul A Selden1, Rony Huys, Michael H Stephenson, Alan P Heward, Paul N Taylor.
Abstract
Copepod crustaceans are extremely abundant but, because of their small size and fragility, they fossilize poorly. Their fossil record consists of one Cretaceous (c. 115 Ma) parasite and a few Miocene (c. 14 Ma) fossils. In this paper, we describe abundant crustacean fragments, including copepods, from a single bitumen clast in a glacial diamictite of late Carboniferous age (c. 303 Ma) from eastern Oman. Geochemistry identifies the source of the bitumen as an oilfield some 100-300 km to the southwest, which is consistent with an ice flow direction from glacial striae. The bitumen likely originated as an oil seep into a subglacial lake. This find extends the fossil record of copepods by some 188 Ma, and of free-living forms by 289 Ma. The copepods include evidence of the extant family Canthocamptidae, believed to have colonized fresh water in Pangaea during Carboniferous times.Mesh：
Year: 2010 PMID： 20975721 DOI： 10.1038/ncomms1049
Source DB: PubMed Journal: Nat Commun ISSN： 2041-1723 Impact factor: 14.919