Posted on 06/24/2024 5:26:31 PM PDT by nickcarraway
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An extinct ribbonlike sea creature about the size of a human hand was one of the earliest animals to evolve a precursor of a backbone. Scientists recently identified the animal’s nerve cord by using a topsy-turvy twist. They turned its fossils upside down.
Paleontologist Charles Doolittle Wolcott first encountered fossils of Pikaia in the Burgess Shale deposits of British Columbia, dating to 508 million years ago, and described them in a 1911 treatise. The animal measured roughly 6.3 inches (16 centimeters) long and had a flattened, sinuous body and a tiny head, tipped with two tentacles and fringed with external gills. These were originally thought to be rudimentary legs, so the animal was positioned with these structures facing downward.
In 2012, after decades of studying Pikaia fossils, researchers described its fossilized internal structures in great detail. They identified a long strand near the belly as a blood vessel and named a sausage-shaped 3D structure running below the animal’s back as a dorsal organ, possibly used for internal support, though such an organ was anatomically unlike anything seen in fossils or in living animals.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
Ewww!
I get the feeling that Cthulhu rising up would be less horrifying than that picture.
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