Beautiful Geometric Skeletons Of Ancient Jellyfish Fossils

Beautiful Geometric Skeletons of Ancient Jellyfish Fossils

The 520-million-year-old fossils reveal that ancient comb jellies had stunning geometric skeletons that have disappeared over the course of evolution, researchers report in a paper published in the journal Science Advances. These strange skeletons contained eight rigid plates that surrounded the jellies’ organs and eight spoke-like structures that radiated outward to surround the soft lobes of their bodies.

The unusual symmetry of these skeletons makes them aesthetically appealing, but it also likely provided mechanical support for the jellies’ squishy bodies. It may have aided in defense against predators or other dangers as well, the researchers suggest.

entire article on techtimes

More Posts from Hannahhaifisch and Others

hannahhaifisch

8 years ago

Four Planet System in Orbit, Directly Imaged | Planetary Landscapes Credit: Many Worlds

This evocative movie of four planets more massive than Jupiter orbiting the young star HR 8799 is a composite of sorts, including images taken over seven years at the W.M. Keck observatory in Hawaii.

Physicists discover hidden aspects of electrodynamics

Radio waves, microwaves and even light itself are all made of electric and magnetic fields. The classical theory of electromagnetism was completed in the 1860s by James Clerk Maxwell. At the time, Maxwell’s theory was revolutionary, and provided a unified framework to understand electricity, magnetism and optics.

Now, new research led by LSU Department of Physics and Astronomy Assistant Professor Ivan Agullo, with colleagues from the Universidad de Valencia, Spain, advances knowledge of this theory. Their recent discoveries have been published in Physical Review Letters.

Maxwell’s theory displays a remarkable feature: it remains unaltered under the interchange of the electric and magnetic fields, when charges and currents are not present. This symmetry is called the electric-magnetic duality.

However, while electric charges exist, magnetic charges have never been observed in nature. If magnetic charges do not exist, the symmetry also cannot exist. This mystery has motivated physicists to search for magnetic charges, or magnetic monopoles. However, no one has been successful. Agullo and his colleagues may have discovered why.

Read more ~ SpaceDaily

17 notes View Post