Posted on 03/19/2009 6:05:08 PM PDT by nickcarraway
A giant head and gill-covered body make this newly reconstructed creature (pictured) "one of most bizarre fossil creatures that there is," one scientist said.
The 505-million-year-old critter was first identified in 1912 from fossil pieces. Over the years, bits of it showed up in museum collections mislabeled as jellyfish, sea cucumbers, and various other creatures.
But expeditions in the 1990s began to uncover more complete specimens, which suggested the animal, dubbed Hurdia Victoria, was much more unique than previously thought.
Now, a well-preserved specimen found in the collections of the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C., and fossil fragments from the Burgess Shale in British Columbia, Canada, have helped scientists to finally piece together the animal's appearance.
(Related: "Museum Secrets Unmasked by "Museomics" Technologies".)
At about 12 to 16 inches (30 to 40 centimeters) long, Hurdia was one of the largest hunters prowling the seas during the Cambrian period.
As a free swimmer—a trait rare at that time—the invertebrate likely caught "whatever it could get its claws onto," such as mollusks and sponges, said lead study author Allison Daley, a Ph.D. student at Sweden's Uppsala University.
The shield protruding from Hurdia's head—which did not offer protection to its body—has particularly stumped Daley and colleagues, whose research appears tomorrow in the journal Science.
Daley speculates that the shield acted as a feeding aid, funneling prey toward the animal's appendages.
I Love Neal but if you watch his show his viewers always send him emails about his Giant Head. Its a running joke on his show.
Don’t get to watch him often, though I do seem to remeber him reading a few e-mails regarding his head.
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Thanks Fred Nerks. That's a creepy lookin' critter, egad! |
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What do you want, a birth certificate? Sorry, but to ask for proof is racist.
I really didn't need to read that. The last thing i want to think about is how she would know about anything "...about 12 to 16 inches (30 to 40 centimeters) long...'.
armadillo perhaps?
There was some really strange stuff swimming around in those days.
Precious.
That picture shorted out just about all of my neurons.
Thanks a bunch.
ROFL!!!
There’s lots of liberals to go after - many with big heads...
Its a running Joke On Neal's Show that he has a Big Head, he chuckles over it himself.
Hey Darks! See post #31...
0bamacus headicus
I would speculate it folded within itself, like an aadvark, for protection.
I'll give it a shot.
It kept egg clusters and hatchlings under the shield for protection. Hatchlings could eat scraps of the prey the adult was shredding.
I just knew that “giant headed predator” in the headline was going to cause this picture to appear. :-)
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