New Fossil Star Species Named After Nightwish Vocalist

Like many exciting discoveries, the new fossil species went unnoticed for a long time.

It was luck when a fossil collectorspotted the fossil of a tiny starfish-like creature during one of his excursions to the world-famous ENCI HeidelbergCement quarry near the Dutch city of Maastricht. The specimen was much smaller than other brittle star fossils that were sometimes found in the same location, and was therefore much less likely to be collected. Dr John Jagt, a paleontologist at the Natural History Museum in Maastricht, soon identified the specimen as a brittle star with long spines.

I believed that this specimen belonged to the groupfragile stars, which is particularly rare in the fossil record, but its true identity remained a mystery given the available information. While examining microfossils recovered from the same rocks that yielded the fragile star fossil, I noticed microscopic skeletal fragments that appeared to belong to the same species.

Dr John Jagt, paleontologist at the Natural History Museum in Maastricht

20 years later, Yagt was right whenDr. Ben Thuy and Dr. Leah Nerger, paleontologists at the Natural History Museum in Luxembourg, examined the fragile star fossils from Maastricht from a different angle, taking into account the latest advances in science.

A new kind of fragile Cretaceous star, Ophiomitrella Floorae, is named after the vocalist of Nightwish. Credit: Dr. Ben Tui

“We are incredibly lucky to have bothmicroscopic skeletal remains, as well as a complete fossil skeleton of the same kind of fragile stars, says Tui. "It provided an exceptionally complete picture of the species." That this species was new to science was exciting in itself, but there was something else: “The new fragile star must have lived in the shallow warm sea, while its living relatives live in the deep sea. This shows that there has been - a significant shift in distribution over the last million years, ”explains Tui.

New fossil, Ophiomitrella floorae,is on the Rock Fossils on Tour traveling exhibition featuring fossils named after rock bands and musicians such as Kalloprion kilmisteri, an ancient worm named after Jan Lemmy Kilmister of Motörhead and is currently on display (until January 3, 2021) at the Museum of Natural stories in Maastricht.

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