New arrivals in the collection - prints of ancient xiphosura

Recently, the museum collection has received something interesting. It is an imprint of the shell of ancient xiphosura aged 250 million years. It was found in the Perm Region in 2017. You can see the contour of a horse-hoofed dorsal shield and a long, sharp tail spike. This imprint is unique because it became the holotype of the new species Paleolimulus kunguricus Naugolnykh. The specimen was presented to the Darwin Museum by our friend, the paleobotanist, the professor of the Russian Academy of Sciences and the Doctor of Geological Sciences Sergey Naugolnykh.

And these numerous circles are the prints of the xiphosurans at the earliest stages of development. Xiphosurans grow rather slowly, reaching puberty only by the tenth year of life. This unique find was made at the bus stop (!) of the village of Staraya Filippovka, near Kungur.

Xiphosura is one of the most ancient creatures on Earth. This species survived dinosaurs, volcanic eruptions, impacts of meteorites and great glaciations, and changed little in appearance. They are classified as a separate order of arthropods. You can meet xiphosurans off the coast of North America, the Far East of Russia and Southeast Asia.

Every decent xiphosura is armed with a strong dorsal shield - a carapace, and a long spike at the end of the body, with the help of which it burrows into the sand in case of danger. On the huge and thick shield of the creature there are 4 almost blind eyes, and under the shield there are chelicerae and 5 pairs of walking legs. It is not pretentious in tastes: xiphosura feeds on mollusks and worms. It breathes with gills located on its legs, but can survive solely on land for up to 4 days. It floats upside down, moving its legs.