Imagine a creature that looks a bit like a toilet brush, scuttling along a seafloor near the present-day southwestern China.
Picture a toilet brush that is slender and has eyes that look up at the stalks. A pair of spike-lined, armlike appendages and a tail fan with long blades will give you a picture of an animal strangeo who lived in the Cambrian Period (541 million to 485.4 millions years ago).
Scientists found the fossil specimens – one of which was a near-complete youngster – in 1990 in the Chengjiang Lagerstätte, a site in China’s Yunnan province.
Researchers reported Sept. 7 that the juvenile measured almost 6 inches (15 cm) in length and was about 2 inches (5cm) wide. It belonged to an extinct group of ancestral ocean-dwelling arthropods called radiodonts. Journal of the Geological Society.
Researchers initially identified the oddball creature as a radiodont. The group’s name comes from the circle-shaped ring of teeth that surrounds the mouths of the animals.
However, the fossil’s frontmost pair of spiky limbs – known as raptorial appendages – differed from all other radiodonts’, which led to a recent reevaluation of the fossils, said lead study author Han Zeng, an assistant professor at the Nanjing Institute of Geology and Paleontology at the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
Radiodonts share similar body plans but species “are distinguished mainly through their diverse forms of Raptorial Appendages”, Zeng explained to Live Science via email. Zeng said that the fossil was unique and that it was not only a new species, but also a previously unknown Genus.
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They called them the “strange species”. Innovatiocaris MaotianshanensisAccording to the study, the genus name comes from Latin words for “innovation” or “crab”, while the species name refers to Maotianshan in Chengjiang, where the fossils were found.
The species lived for a time and was considered one of the most dangerous predators in the ocean. Zeng stated that radiodonts were among the oldest giant apex predators to have ever existed.
“Their appearance during the 520million-years-ago Early Cambrian indicated that complex food webs had formed and marine ecosystems were being created,” he said.
Radiodonta are not only important for their ecological value, but they also have a bizarre morphology that puzzles scientists for more than a century after their first fossil discovery. [the] 1880s.”
Radiodonts have a strange shape that paleontologists for many decades identified as belonging to a variety of animal groups.
One of the unusual radiodont relatives of this animal has been described Backward-facing mouthstrunks with claw-tipped tips, and others It looked like the Millennium FalconThe Star WarsFilms and You are a Roomba, and you have been sucked in like a Roomba.
Zeng explained that the researchers’ classification of the group was not resolved until the 1980s when they discovered complete radiodont fossils.
In I. maotianshanensisZeng stated that “the spinousraptorial appendages indicate the predation on relatively large prey,” and its large eyes suggest that it had good sight. The trunk was likely equipped with flaps and gills, which were used to breathe and swim. Tail structures allowed it to turn and maneuver.
Zeng stated, “Overall these body structures made the animal an active prey.”
I. maotianshanensisThese new clues offer intriguing insights into the mysterious and unusual arthropod ancestors.
With each new fossil radiodont discovered, new questions are raised about the group’s ecology. evolutionZeng shared details about their 120 million year history, including how many species were there, how they hunted their ocean prey and how they evolved.
Zeng said that “Innovatiocaris”, a newly discovered genus, suggests the existence of an evolutionary lineage among Radiodonta.” This hint implies that there are still many questions to be answered about Radiodonta diversity and history. He stated that Radiodonta’s future fossils would reveal even more.
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This article was originally published in Live Science. Please read theOriginal article available here.
