A group of scientists found fossil remains. New group of previously unknown predators and basically consisted of: Large worms longer than 30 centimeters and equipped with powerful jaws. They will be one of the first carnivores to exist in the aquatic environment and will be christened ‘Timorebestia’, meaning ‘Timorebestia’ in Latin. ‘horrible monster’.
The discovery occurred in the Lower Cambrian fossil region of the Sirius Passet. northern greenlandwith. These large worms may have been some of the first carnivores to colonize water, 518 million years ago. This is a predator saga that scientists were unaware of until now.
‘Timorobeasts’ had fins on both sides of their bodies. They had a head with long antennae and a huge jaw.. They could grow to more than 30 centimeters in length and were some of the largest swimming animals of the early Cambrian period.
Distant relative of modern animals
“We already knew that early arthropods, such as the strange-looking anomalilocarids, were the dominant predators during the Cambrian,” said the study’s lead author, Jakob Vinther of the University of Bristol in the United Kingdom. “But the timore monster is a Distant relative of extant arrow worms or chaetognaths. “Today, these are much smaller ocean predators that feed on small zooplankton,” he added.
“Our research shows that these ancient ocean ecosystems were highly complex, with a food chain that allowed for predators at various levels.”
“Timorese monsters were the giants of their time and were near the top of the food chain, making them equivalent to the importance of some key carnivores of the modern oceans, such as sharks and seals from the Cambrian period,” the scientist said.
Researchers inside the fossilized digestive system of a Timor monster They found the remains of a common swimming arthropod called Isoxys. “We can see that these arthropods are a food source for many other animals,” said Morten Lunde Nielsen, who participated in the study.
Isoxys are “very common in the Sirius Passet region and have long protective spines that point both forward and backward. But they clearly did not manage to escape this fate, because The Timorese monsters devoured them in great quantities.”
Dart wolves are one of the oldest animal fossils from the Cambrian period. Arthropods appear in the fossil record between 521 and 529 million years ago, while arrowworms date back at least 538 million years.
Vinther explained: “Both arrow wolves and the more primitive timorean animal They were swimming predators. Therefore, we can assume that they were most likely the predators that dominated the oceans before the appearance of arthropods. “Perhaps they had a dynasty of about 10-15 million years before they were replaced by other, more successful groups.”
Luke Parry from the University of Oxford, who was part of the research, added: “The Timorese beast is a really important find for understanding where these jawed predators came from. Dartworms today have menacing bristles on the outside of their jaws. The Timmore beast has jaws on the inside of its head to capture prey.”
“Existing microscopic jawworms are the organisms with which dartworms work. They shared an ancestor more than 500 million years ago. “The Timorese monster and other similar fossils provide connections between closely related organisms that appear very different today,” he said.
“Our discovery confirms how arrow wolves evolved,” added Tae Yoon Park of the Korea Polar Research Institute, the other senior author and leader of the field expedition. “Living dartworms have a separate nerve center in their abdomen, called the ventral ganglion. This is completely unique to these animals.”
“We saw that this element was preserved in the Timorese monster and another fossil called Amiskwia. People have debated whether Amiskwia was closely related to arrowworms as part of its evolutionary lineage. The preservation of these unique ventral ganglia gives us much more confidence in this.” hypothesis.”
“We are very excited to have discovered such special and unique predators in the Sirius Passet. Thanks to the remarkable and extraordinary preservation of the Sirius Passet, we are also able to reveal interesting anatomical details, including the digestive system, muscular anatomy and nervous system.”
“We have many more interesting findings to share in the coming years This will help show what early animal ecosystems were like and evolved,” Park concluded.
Reference work: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.adi6678
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