Researchers have discovered the fossilized remains of a creature that lived over 500 million years ago.
Believe it or not but that waving little worm thing above is actually incredibly unique in how it looked and fed.
The lobopodian named Ovatiovermis cribratus, is a few inches long and filter-fed by waving it’s body and 30 little arms back and forth to scoop up its microscopic prey.
Danielle Dufault/Jean-Bernard Caron et al., 2017The scientist say that the newly discovered fossil is one of the earliest recorded examples of athropods (a group of animals including insects, spiders, scorpions, and crustaceans)
The stubbly worm-like creature existed in the early Cambrian period according to Gizmodo.
This particular creature is particularly different from other lobopodians because it lacks the defensive spokes that are usual features of such animals.
Dave Marshall from the University of Bristol, said:
Any subsequent species further down the tree that possess these traits can therefore be inferred to have inherited them from an ancestor with a similar ecology.
We can therefore say that the panarthropods evolved from a filter-feeding ancestor.
