Half-Billion-Year-Old Embryos Studied

British paleontologists say they’ve obtained the first detailed visualization of the structures of tiny, fossilized, half-billion-year-old embryos.

Using a technique called synchrotron-radiation X-ray, the scientists are studying the features of tiny, unborn creatures from the very dawn of multicellular life.

Researchers say they have identified the features of tiny unborn creatures from more than 500 million years ago.

Previous attempts to study such fossils were hampered by reliance either on finely slicing the specimens, giving only a two-dimensional view, or simply studying just their exteriors. Using the new method, Philip Donoghue and colleagues at the University of Bristol have gained the first three-dimensional glimpse inside such embryos.

The fossils found in China and Siberia are less than a millimeter wide and are members of worm-like ancient species called Markuelia and Pseudooides.

Donoghue says the technological advance is of similar significance as that brought about several decades ago by the development of the electron microscope.

The study is detailed in the current issue of the journal Nature.