Alert icon
We're changing our privacy policy. This stuff matters.  Learn more  Dismiss

Rotten research: by Nature Video

Loading...

Sign in or sign up now!
6,175
Loading...
Alert icon
Sign in or sign up now!
Alert icon

Uploaded by on Jan 29, 2010

By studying a macabre collection of decaying lampreys, scientists have found that certain body features rot away before others - and that the bits that are first to go are the most useful to palaeontologists. This decay bias makes it much more difficult to distinguish them from their ancestors and could mean that many fossils have been wrongly placed in evolutionary trees. Read the full paper at www.nature.com/nature and the news story at http://www.nature.com/news/2010/100129/full/news.2010.45.html

  • likes, 1 dislikes

Link to this comment:

Share to:

Top Comments

  • They're just now figuring this out? Isn't this sort of thing just blatantly obvious?

  • damn soft ,materials decay faster than more sturdier materials astounding

see all

All Comments (10)

Sign In or Sign Up now to post a comment!
  • researchers really digs all the aspect of humanity..living and as well as DEAD!

  • Does this mean it contradicts Darwin's Theory of evolution?

  • Probably could have just walked down to the beach to see the same thing,,, but then they wouldn't get that million dollar research grant. ;-)

  • interesting!

  • Yummy!

  • I should point out that there is a slight inaccuracy in the commentary. It is not simply the case that the hard cartilaginous tissues are more decay resistant; in fact, the organisms studied in the paper (unlike the adult lamprey shown here) have very few cartilaginous tissues. The decay bias is observed WITHIN the soft tissues: the informative soft tissues decay before the less informative soft tissues.

    Rob Sansom.

  • I'm pretty sure the study taught them other things. Who doesnt know that the organs and tissue decay before bone/cartilage?

    Summarizing an entire study into one sentence often leaves alot of information out. That is the point of the summary.

  • time to reconsider Evolution for some animals. Good idea!

Loading...

0 / 00Unsaved Playlist Return to active list
    1. Your queue is empty. Add videos to your queue using this button:
      or sign in to load a different list.
    Loading...Loading...Saving...
    • Clear all videos from this list
    • Learn more