All that glitters is not gold.

But in the world of fossil discoveries, a golden glow is cause for celebration, even if it’s not real.

Such was the case for Luke Parry, a paleobiology professor at the University of Oxford, who announced this week that he had unearthed a fossil in New York state perfectly and beautifully preserved in pyrite, also known as fool’s gold, which gives it a shiny golden hue. .

One report Published Tuesday in the journal Current Biology, Parry and a team of researchers announced that the fossil is a previously unknown species of arthropod (a category that also includes spiders and insects) and dates back 450 million years. Ordovician Period (485 million to 443 million years ago).

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“There are more living species of arthropods than any other animal group, and this fossil tells us in astonishing detail what these animals were like almost half a billion years ago,” Parry told USA TODAY on Wednesday.

The fossil was first scanned by Parry in 2019 and highlights how arthropods continued to evolve at a time when scientists believed they were extinct, the University of Oxford said in a news release. Until recently, scientists thought that arthropods developed during the Cambrian Period (538 million to 485 million years ago), which preceded the fossilization of the sample found by Parry’s team. According to Oxford.

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The pyrite that fossilized the specimen, named Lomankus edgecombei, “preserves critical evidence of the evolution of life in the oceans 450 million years ago,” co-author Derek Briggs said in a press release.

The density of pyrite also means fool’s gold material, where small areas where the arthropod’s body was once located in the sediment (including internal body parts) have been completely filled in, the scientists said.

“These fossils are magnificently preserved. They look as if they could stand up and run away,” Parry said. “It’s really surprising that these fossils exist.”

This article first appeared on USA TODAY: A discovery covered in glittering fool’s gold reveals unknown species