Science
Related: About this forumThe 'weirdest wonder' of evolution had an even weirder cousin, new study finds
By Brandon Specktor published about 3 hours ago
Looks like Opabinia wasn't just a lonely freak of nature, after all.
An artist's rendering of Utaurora feeding in the Cambrian sea. (Image credit: F. Anthony)
With five eyes, a backward-facing mouth, and a long, claw-tipped trunk where its nose should be, Opabinia regalis is one of the strangest-looking celebrities of the Cambrian period. In fact, this ancient sea-dweller is so unique that scientists have never discovered another species in the fossil record that appears to fit into its alien-faced family.
That is, until now.
Meet Utaurora comosa a small, spiky-tailed marine animal that lived a few million years after Opabinia in what is now North America. First described in 2008, U. comosa was originally classified as a relative of the fearsome Anomalocaris, a claw-faced apex predator that terrorized the Cambrian seas. But a new study suggests that U. comosa may have been much more than just another ancient predator.
In a paper published Feb. 9 in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B, researchers reexamined the only known U. comosa fossil, comparing it with more than 50 living and extinct animal specimens. The team concluded that U. comosa is almost certainly a relative of Opabinia and not a relative of Anomalocaris making U. comosa only the second member of Opabinia's family ever discovered and the first one found in more than 100 years.
"The weirdest wonder of the Cambrian no longer stands alone," the researchers wrote in their paper.
More:
https://www.livescience.com/cambrian-period-opabinia-extinct-relative
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