Researchers have used modern technology to recreate a three-eyed ‘fossil beast’ that reveals surprising details of early animal evolution.
Scientists from the University of Leicester and the Yunnan Key Paleobiology Laboratory have used advanced scanning technology to recreate an ancient monster that lived on the planet hundreds of millions of years ago.
During the study, the scientists re-examined a unique fossil found in ancient stones. Scientists believe this “three-eyed monster fossil” lived on Earth about 520 million years ago. Scientists believe this reassessment of fossils will help fill the gap in our knowledge of the evolutionary history of animals known as arthropods.
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The scientific name of this fossil animal is Kilinxia. Scientists state that their remains are hidden in the rock and that the researchers could only detect them with the help of computed tomography. It is stated that the surprising features of this mysterious fossil, which is the size of a large shrimp, are three eyes on its head and a pair of frightening limbs that are supposed to be used to catch its prey.
Note that fossils of many marine animal species were actually first found in rocks that were about half a million years old. Scientists believe they can shed light on the events that took place on our planet at that time. One of the key places to find such fossils is the area around the city of Chengjiang in southern China, where the fossils in this study were collected by a Chinese team. The authors of the study state that the fossils they studied were collected by a Chinese team and were discovered in the Cambrian biota of Chengjiang, Yunnan province of China. In total, more than 250 perfectly preserved species have been discovered in this region.
The researchers say this fossil is important for deciphering the history of arthropods—animals with compartmentalized bodies, and most with double-jointed limbs, such as crabs, lobsters, spiders, or insects.
There are many arthropods in the fossil record, but most of them have only preserved their hard skeletons. However, almost all of the fossils studied by scientists have survived to the present day. As a result, scientists managed to show the head of an arthropod – it is known that it consists of 6 segments, three eyes are located in the front part, the other has grasping limbs, and the remaining four have arthropods.
According to the study’s lead author, Robert O’Flynn, Ph.D., the preservation of this specimen eventually allowed scientists to digitally reconstruct the fossil and literally look it in the eye. The authors of the study also say that examining this sample will help to better understand the early evolution of arthropods.
Previously Focus He wrote of the discovery of mysterious 500-million-year-old dark-striped fossils.
Source: Focus
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