(Original headline: Watching fossils)
JONESBORO -- Twenty-five years ago in Spain, an Arkansas State University professor encountered some fossils that nobody recognized.
Dr. Aldemaro Romero, chairman of the Department of Biological Sciences, said they were "strange" and "mysterious."
A year and a half ago, Romero returned to Spain for further research and found additional fossils similar to the ones he previously had discovered. He also found a connection between the two sets of fossils.
"The most intriguing of all these fossils correspond to Paleocyphonates, a triangular-shaped creature of about a half-foot in size, and they have not been reported from anywhere else in the world. They are so intriguing that since first discovered ... their nature remained as one of the most puzzling paleontological mysteries," he said.
Romero said that after finding the newer fossils, he connected their relationship with other organisms.
"New fossils ... point at their true significance: a group of rare, sea-floating organisms that later gave rise to a multitude of marine organisms, many of which have become extinct," he said. "That's why nobody before could identify what they were. They are floating organisms -- allowed to float in the ocean."
One of the floating organism fossils is similar to what people say an unidentified flying object looks like, he said. For that reason, the fossils were called UBOs -- unidentified biological objects.
These fossils were discovered in the Tarragona province in Northeastern Spain and date back to the Triassic period -- about 245 million years ago.
The fossils will help scientists understand the links between animal groups, he said.
"What makes these discoveries unique is the fact that they were preserved almost intact ...," he said.
On the trip 112 years ago, he found an "extraordinary fossil jellyfish," he said.
"More than 99 percent of their body is water," he added. "Despite the abundance of them, only 200 fossil jellyfishes have been found in the world."
Jellyfish have inhabited the earth for more than 700 million years, though there have been few details about their ancient anatomy.
Romero's jellyfish sample, which features impressions of tentacles, is "very well fossilized," he said.
"That's because the environment in which they became fossilized went through a sudden flooding that covered and killed them instantly. So, they could not decompose. That's why we have such perfect impressions of their bodies."
Romero also has the complete fossilized skeleton of an ancient lizard, and he believes the creatures were predecessors of dinosaurs.
"The legs are drawn (into the body) because of flooding and because it was covered with mud and fossilized on the beach," he said. "The lizard in question shows every detail on its skeleton and apparently died by drowning."
Articles detailing the findings of Romero and his collaborators will appear in the next edition of Batalleria, the European Journal of Paleontology.
