''Pauline avibella'' is a fossil

ostracod Ostracods, or ostracodes, are a class of the Crustacea (class Ostracoda), sometimes known as seed shrimp. Some 70,000 species (only 13,000 of which are extant) have been identified, grouped into several orders. They are small crustaceans, typic ...

from the

Silurian The Silurian ( ) is a geologic period and system spanning 24.6 million years from the end of the Ordovician Period, at million years ago ( Mya), to the beginning of the Devonian Period, Mya. The Silurian is the shortest period of the Paleozo ...

with unusually well preserved soft parts, including limbs, eyes, gills and alimentary system. The tiny shelled

arthropod Arthropods (, (gen. ποδός)) are invertebrate animals with an exoskeleton, a Segmentation (biology), segmented body, and paired jointed appendages. Arthropods form the phylum Arthropoda. They are distinguished by their jointed limbs and Arth ...

was found in 425-million-year-old rocks in the

Herefordshire Lagerstätte Coalbrookdale Formation, earlier known as Wenlock Shale or Wenlock Shale Formation and also referred to as Herefordshire Lagerstätte in palaeontology, is a fossil-rich deposit ('' Konservat-Lagerstätte'') in Powys and Herefordshire at the Engla ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

near the Welsh Border. The rocks at the site date to the Silurian period of geological time. At the time, southern

Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island and the ninth-largest island in the world. It is ...

was a sea area on a small continent situated in warm, southerly subtropical latitudes. The marine animals living there were covered by a fall of

volcanic ash Volcanic ash consists of fragments of rock, mineral crystals, and volcanic glass, created during volcano, volcanic eruptions and measuring less than 2 mm (0.079 inches) in diameter. The term volcanic ash is also often loosely used t ...

that preserved them frozen in time.''Pauline avibella'': tiny new species discovered
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References

External links

* Myodocopida Prehistoric ostracods Silurian crustaceans Fossils of Great Britain Crustaceans described in 2013 {{paleo-crustacean-stub