"Extremely Rare” Fool’s Gold Fossils Show Soft Tissues Of 450-Million-Year-Old Sea Creature

Spider relative fossil discovered preserved in 3D in fool's gold

The new species has been discovered by a research team lead by the University of Oxford.

450 Million-Year-Old 'Golden' Fossil Reveals a Prize Arthropod Ancestor

Most of the fossils that we find in Earth's crust are preserved in sedimentary rock, where layers of mineral cover an organism and, over eons, harden into stone, dead beastie impression and all.

Rare fossil preserved in fool’s gold reveals newly identified 450 million-year-old species

A creature that scuttled along the seafloor 450 million years ago has been preserved in a rare and striking fossil that formed in fool’s gold.

"Extremely Rare” Fool’s Gold Fossils Show Soft Tissues Of 450-Million-Year-Old Sea Creature

And it’s a new-to-science species, too.

Scientists discover 450 million-year-old fossil in fool's gold

The fossil of an ancient relative of spiders has been found perfectly preserved by fool's gold.

450-million-year-old fossil bug preserved in fool’s gold

Lomankus edgecombei photograph (bottom) and 3D models from microCT scanning (top). Credit: Luke Parry (photograph), Yu Liu, Riuxin Ran (3D models). A spectacular golden fossil has been discovered preserved in iron pyrite, otherwise known as fool’s gold, in the US state of New York. The new species, Lomankus edgecombei, was an arthropod – an animal with a hard exoskeleton. It is distantly related to today’s spiders, scorpions, insects, and crusta…