Brachiopods on safari (or snorkelling giraffes)

From
Date
I have just received the latest issue of _Palaeontology_ (Vol 40(1)),
complete with tacky new orangy-reddy coloured jacket.  Anyhow, the abstract
of the paper entitled "Functional significance of the spines of the
Ordovician lingulate brachiopod _Acanthambonia" by Anthony Wright and Jaak
Nolvak (p. 113-119), drew my attention.  The abstract begins:

"A giraffid skull and mandible from the early Mid Miocene Kermaria
Formation at Thymania (Island of Chios, Greece) has enabled revision of the
genus _Georgiomeryx_.  The new specimen is compared with attachment spines,
supplimenting a pedicle which is functional throughout ontology and
regarded as anchoring the animal possibly to algal strands above the see
floor."

Hmm, increase in giraffid neck length as an intertidal phenomenon perhaps?!

This gets my vote for the best introduction to an abstract this year.  The
fact that the first sentence and a bit has been copied from the next
abstract in the issue is besides the point :-)

Chris

cnedin@geology.adelaide.edu.au                  nedin@ediacara.org
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Many say it was a mistake to come down from the trees, some say
the move out of the oceans was a bad idea. Me, I say the stiffening
of the notochord in the Cambrian was where it all went wrong,
it was all downhill from there.