A new genus and species of palaeoscolecid worm has been identified from two specimens found in the Burgess Shale-type deposits in Utah, the United States. Arrakiscolex aasei. Image credit: University of Missouri. Palaeoscolecida is a group of extinct ecdysozoan worms that existed from the Ealy Cambrian to the Late Silurian …
Read More »Cambrian Comb Jellies
Paleontologists have described two new species from the Cambrian period of Utah, which illuminate the early evolution of nervous and sensory features in ctenophores (comb jellies). An artist’s reconstruction of Ctenorhabdotus campanelliformis (top) and Thalassostaphylos elegans (bottom). Image credit: Holly Sullivan. Ctenophores are a group of over 200 living species …
Read More »Evolutionary Link
Paleontologists have described the first three-dimensional preservation of soft tissue in Namacalathus hermanastes, a skeletal metazoan (multicellular animal) that lived some 547 million years ago (Ediacaran period) in what is now Namibia, and established a strong evolutionary link between Ediacaran and early Cambrian metazoans. Namacalathus (individuals numbered). Centimeter scale. Image …
Read More »Complex Compound Eyes
A team of paleontologists from Australia and the United Kingdom has found that ancient deep-sea creatures called radiodonts developed sophisticated eyes over 500 million years ago (Cambrian period), with some specially adapted to the dim light of deep water. An artist’s reconstruction of ‘Anomalocaris’ briggsi. Image credit: Katrina Kenny. Radiodonts …
Read More »Cambrian Shrimp Five Eyes
Paleontologists in China have uncovered exceptionally preserved fossils of a previously unknown genus and species of extinct arthropod, Kylinxia zhangi, that provides important insights into the phylogenetic relationships among early arthropods, the evolutionary transformations and disparity of their frontal appendages, and the origin of crucial evolutionary innovations in the phylum …
Read More »Tokummia katalepsis: Cambrian Marine Predator Had More Than 50 Legs, Can Opener-Like Pincers
Paleontologists have uncovered a fossil species — named Tokummia katalepsis — that sheds light on the origin of Mandibulata (mandibulates), the most diverse and abundant group of animals, to which belong flies, ants, crayfish and centipedes. Reconstruction of Tokummia katalepsis. Image credit: Lars Fields. Tokummia katalepsis — a large bivalved …
Read More »Hyoliths: Mysterious Cambrian Animals Classified as Lophophorates
Paleontologists have finally determined what hyoliths — a group of extinct marine creatures — actually are. Reconstruction of the hyolith Haplophrentis on the Cambrian sea floor. Image credit: D. Dufault / Royal Ontario Museum. Hyoliths evolved over 530 million years ago during the Cambrian period and are among the first …
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