|
 Scientists on Monday announced the discovery in Yunnan Province of
beautifully preserved fossils of one of the stranger animals ever to
call Earth home. The creature, Collinsium ciliosum, lived during the
Cambrian Period, a time of remarkable evolutionary experimentation
when many unusual animals appeared and vanished.
"Collinsium is definitely an odd-looking animal, and if one were to
bump into one of these during a snorkeling or diving trip nowadays
it would be quite shocking," said University of Cambridge
paleobiologist Javier Ortega-Hernández, whose research appears in
the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Despite its startling appearance, some people "may like it and
regard it as a 'handsome beast,'" added paleontologist Xi-Guang
Zhang of Yunnan University in Kunming, China.
 Its name means "hairy Collins monster," recognizing its bizarre
appearance and the coat of hair-like structures on the front of the
animal while honoring Canadian paleontologist Desmond Collins, who
decades ago conceptualized a similar creature.
Ortega-Hernández said Collinsium, which lived about 515-518 million
years ago, is a distant ancestor of today's velvet worms, a group
resembling legged worms residing in the world's tropical forests.
Collinsium, reaching up to 4 inches (10 cm) long, boasted 72 sharp
spikes on its back to ward off predators. It was one of the earliest
soft-bodied animals with armor.
It had a sausage-shaped body, six pairs of feather-like front legs,
nine pairs of rear legs with claws, a bulbous head and
downward-facing mouth. It got its dinner by extending its feathery
front legs to form feeding basket to capture food particles.
[to top of second column] |
Collinsium was a close cousin of another spiky Cambrian creature
called Hallucigenia.
University of Cambridge paleontologist Martin Smith, whose study
offering the most detailed account ever of Hallucigenia was
published last week in the journal Nature, said even oddballs like
Hallucigenia and Collinsium would have plenty of competition in a
"Cambrian weirdest creature contest."
"Their compatriots included such beasts as Wiwaxia, a slug covered
in leaf-like scales and towering spines; Anomalocaris, resembling a
cross between a lobster and a can-opener; Nectocaris, a boggle-eyed
two-armed squid, and Opabinia, which looks like a shrimp that
swallowed a vacuum cleaner," Smith said.
(Reporting by Will Dunham; Editing by Sandra Maler)
[© 2015 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.]
Copyright 2015 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
 |
