Palaeontologists from the Australian Museum have discovered six previously unknown species of trilobites in the Canning Basin in Western Australia. To work published on the website of a scientific institution.
Trilobites are extinct marine arthropods that lived during the Ordovician period of the Paleozoic era, approximately 490 million years ago. They were covered with a chitin shell and ranged in size from a few millimeters to 90 centimeters.
Scientists say that some trilobites discovered in Canning Basin turned out to have unusual features. For example, one of the new species was distinguished by a very long tail that resembled a double-edged serrated blade.
Researchers named this arthropod species Sanbernardaspis excalibur, after the Excalibur sword that belonged to the legendary King Arthur. According to legend, Arthur removed his weapon from the rock, just as paleontologists extract fossilized remains from the rock.
The discovery of paleontologists made it possible to more accurately determine the age of rocks in Western Australia, which is valuable both for geological sciences and for the search for new mineral deposits.
Paleontologists before discovered A new species of dinosaur the size of a chicken has emerged in England.