Burrowers of pre-Jurassic Era
By tony leather, 18th Apr 2012 | Follow this author
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Posted in WikinutNewsEnvironment
It appears that the burrowing behaviour has been important since complex animal life first appeared on earth, and some dinosaurs are known to have dug them.
Burrowers of pre-Jurassic Era
Burrowers of pre-Jurassic Era
New paleological discoveries have revealed that, long before dinosaurs roamed the earth, creatures were constructing complex underground homes underground, along with miles of connecting tunnels.
Earth 240 million years in the past was a place in which life flourished whatever the environment, and the newly discovered tunnel and burrow complexes in Morocco are the second oldest such subterranean structures ever found.
Latest issue of the journal Palaios contains details of this amazing find, the oldest known communal burrows, only 5million years older, having been found in South Africa, though a similar animal type could have been the creator of both complexes.
The tracemaker as this creature has been dubbed, would probably have been a short-bodied, four-legged stout animal, short tail and neck, possibly 8 to 10in long, and almost certainly possessing five sturdy digits with claws suitable for digging into moderately soft ground.
Sebastian Voigt led the team, funded via German Research Foundation grants, studying the burrows, located in the Argana Basin in central Morocco. They found that the fascinating architecture of these huge complexes consisted of numerous openings, many exits, storage chambers and connecting tunnels.
The Argana burrows are, apparently, exceptionally complex structures never observed in any other place, researchers speculating that these complex underground worlds served as retreats, allowing escape from predators, such as fast-moving, long-legged crocodiles.
Other features of these sites indicate that the occupants also used the complexes\ to shelter from extremes of weather, as it would likely have been very hot in daytime and extremely cold at night
Smooth tunnel floors suggest their being well used, occupants gathering plants, roots, insects and other foods during hours of darkness. It appears that the burrowing behaviour has been important since complex animal life first appeared on earth, and some dinosaurs are known to have dug them.
These Moroccan burrows were constructed in sandy riverbanks, because of the ease of digging there, this new find demonstrating that complex behaviour in response to environmental conditions has a very long history indeed.
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