Bioturbation: The Worms Crawl In, The Worms Crawl Out

       Bioturbation is the reworking of soils and sediments by animals (including worms, snakes, trilobites, and crustaceans) or plant roots. The worms crawl in, the worms crawl out in these churned, turned over and under soils: check out this bioturbation video and watch the burrowing worms in action.

         These ancient dirt churners were recently determined to have taken much longer to bioturbate than originally thought, by millions of years.

       "For years, scientists thought bioturbation commenced in earnest with the Cambrian Explosion, 541 million years ago, when the complexity and diversity of animal species began to expand dramatically."

        "But that wasn’t the case. In a new study published in the journal Nature Geoscience, researchers found that major bioturbation did not occur until at least 120 million years later, during the late Silurian Period."

      Dr. Lidya Tarhan and researchers at Yale University propose that "Delayed bioturbation may have been responsible for regulating marine sulfate and atmospheric oxygen levels. A previously proposed drop in surface oxygen levels may be tied to the onset of extensive bioturbation, given that “oxygen is directly tied to the burial of organic carbon,” Tarhan said. “Less burial of organic carbon, due to bioturbation, means that more oxygen is used to respire or burn through that carbon, and thus oxygen decreases.”"

      Thank heavens for worms and other bioturbators!

     And of course, there's evidence of mass bioturbation (wait for it. . .):

As the Worm Turns,
Steph

       I am not especially fond of the color pink, but I do like these kindergartners' style for our "NOVEMBER is CHEMISTRY MONTH" experiment with Chromatography and ROY G BIV.

Blood Oranges, Crustaceans, and the Moon

 
     Wow! The lunar eclipse last night was amazing. The moon was the color of a blood orange for quite awhile after the eclipse:

     It was worth awakening for, except I am pretty tired today. I hope you were able to look up from your phone, computer, or tablet to see it:

     So, this segue to a 520-million-year-old crustacean with preserved cardiovascular, nervous, and digestive systems found in China may not be the smoothest, but it will be color-coordinated ;-). 

      [One of my favorite memories is of shopping with my four-year-old son. He noticed that everything in our grocery cart was orange when we started shopping.  He suggested we only buy orange things that day. Totally impractical but totally fun! We came home with orange popsicles, pumpkins, carrots, yams, oranges, and other assorted orange things. It was worth needing to go back the next day to get other essentials ;-)].

     In what researchers from the University of Arizona, UK, and China are calling an "invertebrate version of Pompeii," evidence of an especially well-developed cardiovascular system in a three-inch crustacean named Fuxianhuia was discovered in Yunnan Province, China. The system is outlined in carbon and surrounded by mineralized deposits.

         The computer generated model above shows the heart and blood vessels in red, brain and nervous system in dark blue, and digestive system in teal. (Image credit: Nicholas Strausfeld). Eyes and antennae were also preserved.

           The depositional environment is a bit unclear in these half-billion-year-old deposits. The fine dust-like particles are referred to as mudstone with a possible connection to a tsunami (so the volcanic Pompeii analogy doesn't quite work for me.)

             The article was published on April 7, 2014 in Nature Communications:

       Three-inch crustacean preserved

             And, yes, one more orange-red thing, for geologic-times sake (This is a crawdad, not a lobstah. . .)

      Looking forward to your lunar eclipse, crusty crustacean, and other comments this April Tuesday.

Orangely,

Word Woman (Scientific Steph)

Updated P.S.: Natural dyes for eggs made with turmeric, beets, and red cabbage. Kindergarteners and I had a colorful day.

     Look what I found this morning at our grocery store, prominently featured in a large display at the front of the store! They do have a wonderful blend of sweet and tart, jan. Someone had placed a shinier, less wrinkled, similar-shaped orange variety on top of the Sumos. I was not swayed. Thanks for the recommendation.