Scientists Found a Perfect and Strange Ball Structure Inside 80-Million-Year-Old Fossils That Shouldn’t Exist
The Daily Galaxy • • science
Key Points:
- Paleontologists discovered 80-million-year-old marine fossils of crinoids with unusual ball-like skeletal structures resembling molecular fullerenes, a design not previously seen in fossils.
- Two extinct species, Marsupites testudinarius and Uintacrinus socialis, exhibit these spherical calcite plate arrangements, which likely provided structural stability and buoyancy in predator-rich shallow seas during the Cretaceous period.
- The spherical design helped these crinoids survive by withstanding heavy pressure and allowing them to either stay on the seafloor or float away from threats, indicating an adaptive response to intense predation and competition.
- Fossils with these structures have been found across wide geographic areas, from Texas to Western Australia, suggesting the design enabled broad dispersal in ancient oceans.
- Despite their apparent advantages, these ball-like skeletal forms vanished from the fossil record after the Cretaceous, and scientists remain uncertain why this successful evolutionary design did not persist.
