• HOME
  • NEWS
  • EXPLORE
    • CAREER
      • Companies
      • Jobs
    • EVENTS
    • iGEM
      • News
      • Team
    • PHOTOS
    • VIDEO
    • WIKI
  • BLOG
  • COMMUNITY
    • FACEBOOK
    • INSTAGRAM
    • TWITTER
Saturday, August 2, 2025
BIOENGINEER.ORG
No Result
View All Result
  • Login
  • HOME
  • NEWS
  • EXPLORE
    • CAREER
      • Companies
      • Jobs
        • Lecturer
        • PhD Studentship
        • Postdoc
        • Research Assistant
    • EVENTS
    • iGEM
      • News
      • Team
    • PHOTOS
    • VIDEO
    • WIKI
  • BLOG
  • COMMUNITY
    • FACEBOOK
    • INSTAGRAM
    • TWITTER
  • HOME
  • NEWS
  • EXPLORE
    • CAREER
      • Companies
      • Jobs
        • Lecturer
        • PhD Studentship
        • Postdoc
        • Research Assistant
    • EVENTS
    • iGEM
      • News
      • Team
    • PHOTOS
    • VIDEO
    • WIKI
  • BLOG
  • COMMUNITY
    • FACEBOOK
    • INSTAGRAM
    • TWITTER
No Result
View All Result
Bioengineer.org
No Result
View All Result
Home NEWS Science News Biology

Fossil research shows woodlice cousins roamed Ireland 360 million years ago

Bioengineer by Bioengineer
June 16, 2021
in Biology
Reading Time: 2 mins read
0
Share on FacebookShare on TwitterShare on LinkedinShare on RedditShare on Telegram

New techniques used to recreate the image of the Oxyuropoda – the cousin of the garden woodlice

IMAGE

Credit: Diane Dabir Moghaddam.

The old cousins of the common woodlice were crawling on Irish land as long as 360 million years ago, according to new analysis of a fossil found in Kilkenny.

The research, published today (00.01 Wednesday 16 June) in the science journal Biology Letters, used state-of-the-art modern imaging technology to create a new picture of the Oxyuropoda – a land-based creature larger than the modern woodlice – using a fossil found in Kiltorcan, Co Kilkenny in 1908.

Lead researcher Dr Ninon Robin, a postdoctoral researcher at University College Cork’s (UCC) School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences said that their work advances science’s understanding of when land-dwelling species of crustaceans roamed the earth, and what they looked like.

Dr Robin said:

“Woodlice, and their relatives form a group of crustaceans named peracarids that are as species-rich as the more famous group comprising krill, crabs and shrimps named eucarids. From their ancestral marine habitat some peracarids have, unlike eucarids, evolved fully terrestrial ground-crawling ecologies, inhabiting even commonly our gardens, for example pillbugs and sowbugs, which are very common in Ireland.

“Using new modern imaging techniques, we determined that Oxyuropoda was actually a peracarid crustacean, even the oldest known one; which supports the theory that woodlice cousins were already crawling on Irish lands at that very early time, 360 million years ago.

“From previous genomic and molecular studies, scientists had suggested that this group ofcrustaceans must have appeared around 450 million years ago. However their fossils were very rare in the Paleozoic era, which was 560-250 million years ago, so we had no idea at all how they looked at that time, nor if they were marine or yet terrestrial.

“Our work is an advance in the field of the evolution of invertebrate animals, especially crustaceans, and in our knowledge of the timing of their colonisation of land,” she said.

The fossil that formed the basis of this research was found in 1908 in a quarry at Kiltorcan, Co Kilkenny. The site has been internationally known since the mid 19th-century as the location of a number of plant, freshwater bivalve, fish, and crustacean fossils.

###

The international team behind this research includes Dr David Jarvis, also of UCC, and scientists from University of Lausanne in Switzerland, Harvard University in the US, and Naturalis Biodiversity Center of Leiden the Netherlands.

Media Contact
Dr Ninon Robin
[email protected]

Related Journal Article

http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2021.0226

Tags: BiologyEcology/EnvironmentEvolutionGeology/SoilHistoryMolecular BiologyPaleontology
Share13Tweet8Share2ShareShareShare2

Related Posts

blank

CK2–PRC2 Signal Drives Plant Cold Memory Epigenetics

August 2, 2025
blank

AI-Driven Protein Design Advances T-Cell Immunotherapy Breakthroughs

August 1, 2025

Melanthiaceae Genomes Reveal Giant Genome Evolution Secrets

August 1, 2025

“Shore Wars: New Study Tackles Oyster-Mangrove Conflicts to Boost Coastal Restoration”

August 1, 2025
Please login to join discussion

POPULAR NEWS

  • Blind to the Burn

    Overlooked Dangers: Debunking Common Myths About Skin Cancer Risk in the U.S.

    60 shares
    Share 24 Tweet 15
  • Dr. Miriam Merad Honored with French Knighthood for Groundbreaking Contributions to Science and Medicine

    46 shares
    Share 18 Tweet 12
  • Neuropsychiatric Risks Linked to COVID-19 Revealed

    38 shares
    Share 15 Tweet 10
  • Study Reveals Beta-HPV Directly Causes Skin Cancer in Immunocompromised Individuals

    38 shares
    Share 15 Tweet 10

About

We bring you the latest biotechnology news from best research centers and universities around the world. Check our website.

Follow us

Recent News

Unraveling EMT’s Role in Colorectal Cancer Spread

Gut γδ T17 Cells Drive Brain Inflammation via STING

Agent-Based Framework for Assessing Environmental Exposures

  • Contact Us

Bioengineer.org © Copyright 2023 All Rights Reserved.

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In
No Result
View All Result
  • Homepages
    • Home Page 1
    • Home Page 2
  • News
  • National
  • Business
  • Health
  • Lifestyle
  • Science

Bioengineer.org © Copyright 2023 All Rights Reserved.