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Ancient Australian crayfish fossils found

MELBOURNE, Feb. 7 (UPI) -- Crayfish fossils discovered in Australia have provided the first physical evidence that crayfish existed on that continent as long ago as the Mesozoic Era.

"Studying the fossil burrows gives us a glimpse into the ecology of southern Australia about 115 million years ago, when the continent was still attached to Antarctica," said Emory University paleontologist Anthony Martin, an honorary research associate at Monash University in Melbourne.

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Martin's research was based on the discovery of crayfish body fossils consisting of an abdomen and two claws, with the fossil burrows nearly identical to those made by modern crayfish in Australia.

"The evolution of Southern Hemisphere crayfish has challenged researchers since the 1870s," said Martin. "Only now, 140 years later, are we starting to put together the physical evidence for this evolution through the discovery of fossils."

The research involving a consortium of Australian scientists included Thomas Rich and Gary Poore of the Museum of Victoria; Mark Schultz and Christopher Austin of Charles Darwin University, and Lesley Kool and Patricia Vickers-Rich of Monash.

The study appeared in the Feb. 2 online issue of the journal Gondwana Research.

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