It has fins on the sides of its body, a unique head with long antennae, a huge jaw structure in its mouth, and can grow to over 30 cm (11.8 inches) in length. Timole Bestia Copley It was one of the largest animals in the ocean during the early Cambrian period.
reconstruction of Timole Bestia Copley Among the pelagic ecosystems preserved in Sirius Passet. Other species shown in the foreground are key salt kia, silicalis, Kerygmacella, Paulo end point, Kleptosurand Isoxis; There are also two radioactive substances in the background. Tamisiocharis And Unplected Belid. Image credit: Robert Nicholls/BobNichollsArt.
Timole Bestia Copley They lived in the early Cambrian oceans over 518 million years ago.
The fossilized remains of this animal were discovered in Fossil locality of Sirius Passet in northern Greenland.
“We previously knew that the main predators of the Cambrian were primitive arthropods, including the bizarre-looking anomalocariids,” said Dr Jacob Binther, a palaeontologist at the University of Bristol.
“but, Timole Bestia Copley is a distant but close relative of a living caterpillar; or Chetognath. These are much smaller marine predators today, feeding on small zooplankton. ”
“Our study shows that these ancient marine ecosystems were fairly complex and had food chains that tolerated multiple layers of predators.”
“Timole Bestia They were the giants of their time and would have been near the top of the food chain. As such, they are as important as major carnivores in the modern ocean, such as Cambrian sharks and seals. ”
Inside a fossilized digestive system Timole Bestia CopleyDr. Vinther et al. Isoxis.
“We can see that these arthropods were a food source for many other animals,” says palaeontologist Dr Morten Lunde Nielsen of the Korean Polar Research Institute, the University of Bristol and the British Geological Survey.
“They were very common in Sirius Passet and had long protective spines pointing both forward and backward.”
“But it is clear that they could not completely avoid that fate. Timole Bestia I munched on them in large quantities. ”
holotype of Timole Bestia Copley.Image credit: Park other., doi: 10.1126/sciadv.adi6678.
“Arrowworms are one of the oldest animal fossils from the Cambrian period. Arthropods appear in the fossil record about 521 to 529 million years ago, but arrowworms appear in the fossil record at least 500 million years ago. It can be traced back to 38 million years ago,” Dr. Vinter said.
“Both arrowworms and more primitive arrowworms, Timole Bestia, was a swimming predator. Therefore, we can infer that they were likely predators that dominated the oceans before arthropods took off. ”
“They probably had a dynasty for about 10 to 15 million years before being replaced by other more successful groups.”
“Timole Bestia “This is a hugely important discovery for understanding where these jawed predators came from,” said Dr Luke Parry from the University of Oxford.
“Today, the caterpillar has formidable setae on the outside of its head to catch prey, but Timole Bestia There is a jaw in the head. ”
“This is the bearded bug that we can see under a microscope today, and it is an organism that shared an ancestor with the bearded bug more than 500 million years ago.”
“Timole Bestia And other fossils like it provide a link between closely related organisms that look very different today. ”
“Our discovery confirms how the beetles evolved,” said Dr. Taeyoon Park, a paleontologist at the Korea Polar Research Institute.
“The abdomen of living arrowworms has a unique nerve center called the ventral ganglion. It is completely unique to these animals.”
“I found this saved. Timole Bestia and another fossil called Amiskwia”
“People are, Amiskwia As part of the evolutionary stem lineage, it was closely related to the caterpillar. ”
“The preservation of these unique ventral ganglia gives us even more confidence in this hypothesis.”
team's work It was published in the magazine scientific progress.
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Taeyoon S. Park other. 2024. Chaetognus in the giant stem group. scientific progress 10(1); doi: 10.1126/sciadv.adi6678
Source: www.sci.news
