Scientists have discovered fossil remains of an unusually large “naked” sea creatures that lived in the oceans half a billion years ago. This creation belongs to a mysterious and confusing group of animals, known under the Latin name Chancelloriidae, and scientists don’t know where on the tree of life to enter. Beings themselves represent the pedigree spiky animal shaped tubes that appeared during the Cambrian evolutionary “explosion”, but very soon became extinct. In a sense, they resemble a sponge, a group of simple animals that live by filtering, but many scholars reject this resemblance as superficial.
A new type, called Allonnia nuda, was opened by researchers from the University of Leicester, Oxford and Yunnan (China). The work was published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B. Allonnia nuda found in the deposits of chengjiang fuxian lake of Yunnan province in China. During the life of the animal was surprisingly big (two feet or more), but it there were no thorns, thorns. The “nakedness” of fossil species suggests that other species may be hiding in fossils, and shows that this group was more diverse than previously thought.
In addition, the new view contains information about the structure of the body’s growth, with clear ties to modern sponges. It is too early to say something affirmative, but the discovery underlines the Central role of sponge fossils in the debate on the topic of the early evolution of animals. Perhaps Chancelloriidae will find its place on the tree of life somewhere near the sponges.
Amazing creatures appeared during the Cambrian “explosion” turns out to be.
“Naked” fossil of a creature at half a billion years has forced scientists to think
Ilya Hel