Scientists from Poland and Japan discovered sea animals – day lilies – that have been submerged by coral reefs in the waters of the Pacific Ocean. Such symbiosis was known in the Paleozoic seas, but it appeared to be extinct. So researchers described an environmental “living fossil” that had not been found in the seas 273 million years ago.

The ancient seabed was inhabited by many organisms that interacted with each other in different ways. One very common interaction has been coral relationships with day lilies – the sedentary, flower-like marine animals. The coral reefs were covered with the stems of the day lily, which placed them high above the bottom. This allowed them to capture food particles more easily, we read in a statement posted on the website of the University of Warsaw.

Fossils of daylilies with corals are often found in the rocks of the Paleozoic period, but the smallest of them date back to about 273 million years ago. Although both organisms were common in later seas, these fossils are not known from newer rocks, nor were they known in modern seas.

Dr. Love. Mikwaj Zapalski of the University of Warsaw’s School of Geology, together with colleagues from Japan and Poland, described an ecological “living fossil” – a skeletal coral reef that grows on the stems of daylilies that has not been seen in 273 million years. Test animals were hunted from a depth of about 100 meters off the Pacific coast of the islands of Honshu and Shikoku.

“The research was performed, among other things, using a microtomographic computer. The results showed that, unlike their Paleozoic counterparts, today’s corals did not modify the skeleton of their host. Despite these differences in the structural record, lily coral populations could They serve as a model for Paleozoic interactions “- we read in the information received from the University of Warsaw.

The research on marine coexistence has been published in Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0031018221002042?via%3Dihub). Professor also attended them. Mosques. Rimer, Dr. Hiroki Kees, Dr. Takato Izumi from Ryukius University, Dr. Ryota Yoshida from Ochanomizu University and Dr. M. Marek Dhanalik from the Oil and Gas Institute – National Research Institute.

PAP – Science in Poland

Screen /