#] #] ********************* #] "$d_web"'My sports & clubs/museum- Tyrell/0_Tyrrell notes.txt' # www.BillHowell.ca 04Mar2024 initial # view in text editor, using constant-width font (eg courier), tabWidth = 3 #48************************************************48 #24************************24 # Table of Contents, generate with : # $ grep "^#]" "$d_web"'My sports & clubs/museum- Tyrell/0_Tyrrell notes.txt' | sed "s|^#\]| |" # #24************************24 # Setup, ToDos, #08********08 #] ??Mar2024 #08********08 #] ??Mar2024 #08********08 #] ??Mar2024 #08********08 #] ??Mar2024 #08********08 #] ??Mar2024 08********08 #] 28Mar2024 Tyrrell ZoomTalk: Tommy Leung, Uof New England: Parasites Tommy Leung, Uof New England: What the Fossil Record Tells Us About Parasites, and What Parasites Can Tell Us About Fossil Animals Parasites are a ubiquitous part of any ecosystem on this planet, yet they are rarely fossilised due to their soft bodies and mostly small sizes. However, over the last few decades, advances in preparation techniques and imaging technology has allowed more fossils of parasites to be discovered and described. These fossils have provided us with some tantalising glimpses at an aspect of prehistoric life which is largely overlooked. In this talk, I will be discussing the fossil record of parasites throughout Earth’s history. I will be talking about the insights that fossils can provide regarding the evolution of parasitism, the ecological role parasites might have played in the ancient world, and what fossil parasites can tell us about how their extinct hosts lived. +-----+ Howell's notes : NZ bivalves - parasites build up in foot, so bivalves can't burrow, greater biodiversity feeding off of them fossil parasites few and far between : not preserved examples : Cambriam worms parasites in worms pentastomids (tongue) worms, Cambrain, today all over in reptile lungs eg Australia 425 My Silurian ecto-parasite perhaps precursor to tongue worms? fish late (upper) Devonian, resemble monogeneoms cretaceous copepods 100My ago, 1/3 of knwn copepods are parasitic or symbiotic Jurassic isopods 168My ago, mouth parts ,aybe suck up fluids (copepos live inside?) group of cymopoids some burrow into fish Cretaceous Probyus? crustacean parasites - inside to branchial chamber perals are integral parts of bivalve protection system against parasites gymnophallid parasites in modern pearls, Triassic pearls (also Silurian, but 200My gap) ammonite pearls? - cephallopod snails & echinoderms: sea urchins crinoids, etc parasitic snails, eg platyceratid-crinoid interaction, when extinct at end of ?era? new family of parasitic snails gastropod on holasterid crinods? 5,000 species today, sea star parasitic snails, don't know if affected early animals "coprolite cornucopia" fossilized poop - tells us a lot about the environment can find out totday what is affecting an animal without [kill, dissect]ing it many parasites live in gastro-intestinal tact [liver, blood] flukes's eggs find way to intestinal trac to find way out to infect others fossil coprolites - tapeworms, sharks 270My, may have been original home of tapeworms reptile poop - Mesozoic, nematodes & ???, different shaped eggs clue about type roundworms incce Mesozoic : go from marine mammal -> fish -> etc pinworms are quite a big deal, make your butt itch arthropods (cochroaches etc) nematode in cynodont coprolite pinworms associated with [chitin, celluose] in diet, hooks to lock onto intestinal wall camprosyphlins - follow rules of host : first infect arthropod, small [lizard, rodent], large [bird, reptile, etc] anisakidae amber preservation parasitic memithdae - alter behaviour of insects to go in water, where parasite can infect others horse-hair worms (nematodes) and helminths?, fossil cochroaches fungi Cretaceous, kill host, bring to right environment ants climb up on a leaf to be consumed by other hosts mid-Cretaceous terrestial revolution - modeern goups of insects riding sucess of flowing plants zombified ants - climb high, on leaf Eocebe, perhaps much much longer blood-sucking insects with "passengers" eg malaria at least since Cretaceous ticks - Carboniferous as soon as vertebrates on land [soft, hard] ticks originated during Permian co-incides with ??, fossil ticks to Cretaceous, maybe becuse amber not available non-avian dinosaurs one Cretacous tick features of both [hard, soft] ticks living dinosaurs (birds) have [[flea, lice] most common today, tick, mite, blood-sucker]s giant dinosaur fleas from Cretaceous, some criticisms not associated with any host material not in same area (assemblage) morphology not homologous with siphonoptera (fleas) anatomical features match generalized insect features rather than specific adaptations for parasitism, eg tarsal claws at end of limbs not large in "dinosaur fleas", lack hair-cling legs as with ecto-parasites idea of "dinosaur fleas" is more infectious than fleas? lack blood indications is some supposed blood-sucking parasites Eocene 40My ago when recognizable fleas arose Theoretical framework for research directions were any insects live as ectoparasite of terrestrial vertebrates (incl therapods?) ?? ?? Extant phylogenetic bracketing for parasitism which vertebrates were infected with tapeworms (today all fish, reptiles?) no fossil support for specific types of fish, pre-Permian? Ecological fitting for parasitism (equivalent to convergent evolution) sea lions & penguins have same parasites, similar bodies also in sea birds parasitic flukes in whales NOT found in other mammals (cranial brain area) actually found in fish Conclusion fossil parasites provide key infomation about hosts and paleoenvironments many modern groups of parasites have fossil ??? ??? +-----+ Howell's questions : 1. A 2001 Scientific American article on parasites mentioned parasite-induced behavioral changes in the host (today's parasites). Are there any paleotology inducations? (might be very hard to detmine this?) 2. How frequent are parasites in [modern, fossil] host populations? I imagine this varies a lot. (or do we all have them?) patchily distributed 3. What about the symbiotic relation. Is there anything like the supposed maternal miternal mitochodria situation? Rorarutara museum in NZ #08********08 #] 04Mar2024 view video: Livingston: Snapshot of an Ancient Ecosystem February 22: Livingston: Snapshot of an Ancient Ecosystem Lisa Bohach, Stantec Consulting, Craig Scott & Christopher West, Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology >> not posted yet # enddoc