This strange aquatic arthropod had no eyes and used “stilts” to get around

Paleontologists recently announced the discovery of an “exceptionally well-preserved” ancient animal near the eastern shore of Lake Simcoe in southern Ontario, Canada, in a rock quarry that is such a hotbed of marine fossils. which scientists have dubbed the area “Paleo Pompeii”.

Appointed Tomlinsonus dimitriThe species represented by the specimen is part of an extinct group of arthropods known as marrellomorphs that lived around 450 million years ago, during the Ordovician period, the research team reported in a new study.

Other echinoderm fossils abundant in the region typically contain mineralized body parts that are more likely to be preserved over time, but this species is entirely soft-bodied, which makes the find all the more surprising. .

“We did not expect to find a soft-bodied species at this site,” said study lead author Joseph Moysiuk, a PhD candidate in ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of Toronto and a researcher at the Museum. Royal Ontario (ROM) of Toronto.

“When we think of fossils, we usually think of things like dinosaur bones and shells. However, soft tissue preservation is very rare, and there are only a few sites in the world where body-bodied organisms mou were found,” Moysiuk said. Live Science.

Measuring 2 inches (6 centimeters) – just under the length of an index finger and able to fit in the palm of a hand – the specimen features an ornate head shield that contains two curved horns covered in feather-like spines . The animal’s segmented body resembles that of other arthropods, such as insects and spiders, and contains several sets of segmented limbs, including a very unusual pair.

“Beneath the head are this amazing pair of limbs that are extremely long and have foot-like projections at the terminal ends, which we think they most likely used to shove their way through the seabed,” Moysiuk said. “He also appears to be blind, as he has no eyes at all.”

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Researchers discovered the strange arthropod last summer during an official dig of an active quarry belonging to the Tomlinson Group, an infrastructure services company based in eastern Canada. (Paleontologists named the species Tomlinsonus dimitri as a nod to the Tomlinson Group for letting them search the site.)

Prior to this dig, led by George Kampouris, a co-author of the paper and an independent paleontological technician who has been studying the quarry’s fossil beds since 2014, the marrellomorphs were mostly found at older fossil sites, such as the Burgess Cambrian Shale. in Canada. British Columbia Rockies.

the Tomlinsonus dimitri Fossil (left) and line drawing of specimen. (ROMs)

According to paleontologists, the newly described specimens resemble another species of extinct soft-bodied arthropod called marrella splendensfound in the Burgess Shale.

Similar to the Burgess Shale, the Lake Simcoe Quarry was once submerged in water and part of a shallow tropical marine sea that covered much of what is now Canada. For millions of years, the seabed was covered with sediment caused by storms.

“What we’re seeing is the rapid burial of these organisms that lived on this flat, shallow ocean floor and were repeatedly smothered by large underwater mudslides from storms.” , said Moysiuk.

“You can imagine hurricanes hitting this shallow plateau area and burying the entire community of organisms, which is why we dubbed the site ‘Paleo Pompeii’. These organisms were buried exactly where they lived, and what we see, they are them frozen in time.”

Moysiuk and his fellow researchers hope the discovery will help “fill the gap” in the fossil record for this group of arthropods, they wrote in the study.

the Tomlinsonus dimitri specimen is now part of the ROM’s collection and is currently on display at the Willner Madge Gallery as part of the museum’s “Dawn of Life” exhibition.

The results were published on March 24 in the Journal of Paleontology.

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This article was originally published by Live Science. Read the original article here.