Fossils of Cambrian Predator Preserved With Brain Impressions

An anonymous reader writes "Researchers on Wednesday described fossilized remains unearthed in China showing in fine detail the brain structures of a bizarre group of sea creatures that were the top predators more than half a billion years ago. The 520-million-year-old creature, one of the first predators of its day, sported compound eyes, body armor and two spiky claws for grabbing prey. "The animals of the Cambrian are noted for being a collection of oddballs that are sometimes difficult to match up with anything currently living on Earth. But even among these oddities, Anomalocarids stand out (as their name implies). The creatures propelled themselves with a series of oar-like paddles arranged on their flanks, spotted prey with enormous compound eyes, and shoveled them into a disk-like mouth with large arms that resided at the very front of their bodies—although some of them ended up as filter feeders."

Re:Hard to place?

[Sique]

Yes. Because they are, as far as we know, not related to shrimps, though they look superficially similar. According to the article, they might be far relatives to today's velvet worms. That means that even the Tardigrades (microscopically small livings in puddles and wet soil) are closer related to shrimps than the Anomalicarididae.

Re:Hard to place?

[Sique]

Actually, they are considered pan-arthropoda, a greater group, that includes the arthropoda, but also the tardigrades and the onychophora, and if they are indeed related to the velvet worms, they would be classified as onychophora and not arthropoda. And yes, they are connected, in the same sense that all protostomia are connected.

Re:Looks like a rock drawing to me...

[AlecC]

I think the colour has been put on by the discoverers to highlight the high points and make the fossil easier to interpret. In the real world, the whole fossil is just rock coloured, as seem at the edges of the picture. I.e. you are tautologically right: the colour is mapping height.

Re:Oddballs...

[Kuberz]

When it comes to weird shit that exists... Tardigrades take the cake.

They can live 10 years without any type of sustenance, can withstand more pressure than exists in the deepest oceans, can be boiled, frozen, blasted with radiation, even thrown in space, and still survive.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T... [wikipedia.org]

Re:Body armour?

[Antique Geekmeister]

In order to protect turf and progeny from your own species. One's own species is often the fiercest competition in the local ecology.