Knowledge Bank Online Events

Speaker:  Dr John Long, palaeontologist and Head of Science at Museum Victoria
When:  Thursday 26 June at 2.30pm
Where:  Online in Elluminate. 

Recording: This session was recorded – to listen click here and wait for a few moments for the recording to load up.  If you attended the session or listened to the recording, we’d be grateful if you could complete a short evaluation.  Thank you for participating. 

Transcript:  A full transcript of this session was made – to download it – click here.

The fossilised remains of the oldest mother ever discovered were unveiled at Melbourne Museum on Thursday 29 May. One of the biggest breakthroughs in palaeontology ever made, the specimen is a 375 million year old placoderm fish with embryo and umbilical cord attached, making the fossil the oldest example of vertebrate sex ever discovered. On Thursday 26 June, teachers and students from across Victoria have the opportunity to engage online with the Dr John Long, the lead scientist behind the discovery of the world’s oldest mother.

Published in last week in Nature, the finding is one of the most significant made by Australian scientists.

“I am absolutely thrilled to be able to have this opportunity to communicate a cutting edge scientific discovery to Victorian school students. Our field expeditions to the Gogo fossil sites in north Western Australia have uncovered a lot of amazing new fossils. By using the latest technology, these fossils will enable us to better understand the early evolution of life on this planet,” said Dr Long.

“I’m very excited by this event. I began collecting fossils when I was in primary school and have never given it up. I have lived my dream career as a palaentologist, collecting fossils from every corner of the globe, even Antarctica.  I’m truly thrilled to be able to enthuse Victorian school students by conveying some of the excitement one feels when making discoveries, and to offer encouragement for budding future scientists.”

“The discovery is certainly one of the most extraordinary fossil finds in recent decades. It is not only the first time that a fossil embryo has been found with an umbilical cord, but it is also the oldest known example of any creature giving birth to live young.”

“Like deriving the proofs of a new formula to explain how subatomic particles move, or uncovering a new gene that gives insight into how a disease functions, in palaeontology we also have new frontiers that have never before been reached. This was clearly and unambiguously one of them.”

New technologies have enabled Dr Long and his colleagues to verify their findings and uncover more evidence that could otherwise not be seen.

“Tim Senden at the Department of Applied Mathematics at the Australian National University analysed the specimen using the Ultra Fine CT scanner. Tim analysed the files and made some preliminary tomogram movies showing how the umbilical cord looped underneath the mother fish.”

“With this technology, we can trace the pathway of the umbilical structure through the rock in 3D and see clearly some of the embryonic plates that were not visible in the specimen.”

Another colleague, Dr Kate Trinajistic from University of Western Australia Kate first identified the umbilical cord. To test the theory a small broken piece of the structure was examined under the Scanning Electron Microscope.

“Kate’s study revealed that the sample had all the attributes one sees in modern umbilical structures in living sharks. The tissue is spongy with linkages to connective tissue called appendiculae, and there are numerous pores and vascular canals through it. This was the first time in any fossil that a feeding structure linking mother and unborn young had been found.

The fossil was found in the Gogo area of north-west Western Australia and has been named Materpiscis attenboroughi after the famed naturalist Sir David Attenborough.

“To say that I am thrilled by the news puts it mildly. I am extremely flattered that you should give my name to such an astonishing creature. The skill with which you have revealed and identified the umbilical cord is really extraordinary. Thank you for you and your colleagues for this marvellous honour.” said Sir David Attenborough in a letter to Dr Long.

“Sometimes big discoveries in science happen completely out of the blue when you least expect them”, said Dr Long. “Our team’s recent discovery was just such a case.”

“We are at the beginning of a whole new field of palaeontological research into lower vertebrate structure and evolution. It continues with further field work at the Gogo sites later this year, sponsored by our Discovery Grant from the Australian Research Council.”

John Long had been collecting and studying the ancient fishes from the Gogo sites in Western Australia since 1986. He was born in Melbourne and has collected fossils since he was 7 years old. In 1971 he won the Victorian Science Talent Search (major Junior division prize) for his work on the fossils of Victoria. His career has taken him on expeditions around the world, including Antarctica, Africa, Asia, North America and throughout Europe. He has published more than 200 scientific papers and is the author of around 25 books on fiction and popular science for adults and children. In 2001 he won the prestigious Eureka Prize for the Public Promotion of Science.

• To view an animation recreating the specimen and an interview with John Long, visit the Museum Victoria website: http://museumvictoria.com.au/About/MV-News/2008/Mother-fish/
• The story was featured on the ABC Catalyst program on Thursday 5 June. Check their website to view the story: http://www.abc.net.au/catalyst/
• Further information about Gogo fish fossils can be found in John Long’s ‘Swimming in Stone-The Amazing Gogo Fossils of the Kimberley‘. Check your school library for ‘Gogo Fish! The Story of the Western Australian State fossil Emblem’, by John Long, which won the Australian Children’s Book Council Honour Book Award. Also, ‘The Big Picture Book’ (Allen & Unwin 2005), explains evolution for kids very clearly and has Devonian fish in it too.

This event is free, but you need to Sign Up and get set up to use Elluminate. 

This entry was posted on June 5, 2008 at 6:06 pm and is filed under Museum Victoria, Past events, Seminar Series, science. Tagged: fossils, palaeontology, science. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.