Mystery fossil is ancestor of squid
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Mystery fossil is ancestor of squid
by David » May 27, 2010 - 8:22 am
Science reporter, BBC News
The ancestors of modern squid may have existed half a billion years ago - a lot earlier than previously thought.
In a new study, Canadian researchers identified a previously unclassifiable fossil that was long believed to belong perhaps to the shrimp family.
They called it Nectocaris pteryx - a small soft-bodied cephalopod with two tentacles rather than the eight or 10 seen in today's octopi.
The new survey's results were presented in the journal Nature.
The findings make the ancestors of modern squid and octopuses at least 30 million years older.
Evolutionary biologist Martin Smith, the main author of the study, told PA news agency that the findings bring cephalopods much closer to the first appearance of complex animals.
"We go from very simple pre-Cambrian life-forms to something as complex as a cephalopod in the geological blink of an eye, which illustrates just how quickly evolution can produce complexity," said Mr Smith.
The authors described Nectocaris as a kite-shaped creature that was flattened from top to bottom. They say it was between two and five cm long and had large, stalked eyes.
The tiny animal is believed to have been a carnivore that hunted for prey with two long grasping tentacles. It used a nozzle-like funnel under its eyes that could "swivel like a pivoted cannon" to jet itself around the ocean - just like modern squids and octopuses.
'Unclassified' creature
The fossil isn't a new find - it was discovered decades ago in the Burgess Shale deposits atop a mountain in Yoho National Park in British Columbia, Canada.
The Burgess Shale Formation is one of the world's most famous fossil fields.
Scientists tried to describe the fossil for the first time in 1976 - but back then, they just weren't sure where it belonged on the evolutionary tree.
They dubbed it "unclassified". According to Jean-Bernard Caron, Mr Smith's co-author, researchers originally thought the mystery creature could have been a relative of anything from a lobster to a fish.
But after Mr Smith, a University of Toronto PhD student, decided to re-examine the fossil together with 91 new specimens collected in recent years, scientists were finally able to give the animal its proper place in history.
SOURCE: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science_and_ ... 173293.stm
David Campbell
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"Extending a sea ethic would mean recognizing the ocean’s importance to the continued existence of life on our planet and to human futures. From this recognition would flow an appropriate sense of moral imperative, commitment, and urgency—urgency toward ending overfishing and wasteful bycatch and aggressively rebuilding depleted ocean wildlife populations, stabilizing human effects on world climate, slowing habitat destruction, stemming global transport and accidental introduction of "alien" species, curbing the flow of contaminants and trash, developing sustainable seafood farming, cultivating an informed approach to the seafood marketplace, and implementing networks of protected areas in the sea." - Dr. Carl Safina
"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it's the only thing that ever has." - Margaret Mead
"If you think you can, you might, if you think you can't, you never will." - Anon
"Don't believe everything you think." - Anon
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Re: Mystery fossil is ancestor of squid
by sea turtle lover » June 5, 2010 - 2:34 pm
Thats awsome I remember reading about this creature in A Wonderful Life.
please help with conservation everywhere... the ocean, the rain forest, the plains, etc.
and do not eat seafood also if you eat steak make sure the cow owners do not shoot wolves, mountain lions, prairie dogs, etc.
and do not eat seafood also if you eat steak make sure the cow owners do not shoot wolves, mountain lions, prairie dogs, etc.
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sea turtle lover - ~ Orca ~
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Re: Mystery fossil is ancestor of squid
by Scuba Claus » June 5, 2010 - 3:45 pm
Looking at the fossil, my first guess would have been a squid, Doesn't look like a shrimp or really much anything else except maybe a sea slug.
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Scuba Claus - :: Small Fry ::
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