The Burgess Shale, in Canada, is an invaluable source of fossils; one that seems to prove that life 500 million years ago was much more diverse than is commonly thought. Now researchers from the University of Toronto and the Royal Ontario Museum, Canada, have found another species that defies the current animal classification.
The Siphusauctum gregarium, as they have named it, resembles a tulip. The creature has a stem with a calyx – a bulbous cup-like structure – all standing on a small holdfast. Its height is of at least 20 cm, and the biggest peculiarity of this animal is the way it used to feed, through small holes in its calyx. “Siphusauctum gregarium was probably an active filter-feeder, with water passing through the calyx openings, capturing food particles with its comb-like elements,” describe the researchers.
It is the first time scientists find a species of these characteristics, as Lorna O’Brian, co-author of the study, explains: “This feeding system appears to be unique among animals. Recent advances have linked many bizarre Burgess Shale animals as primitive members of many animal groups that are found today but Siphusauctum defies this trend. We do not know where it fits in relation to other organisms.”
The researchers, who published their study this week in the journal PLoS One, have based their finding on the analysis of 1,133 specimens, found in a place precisely called “the Tulip Beds locality”.
Source: CBC News, LiveScience
O’Brien, L., & Caron, J. (2012). A New Stalked Filter-Feeder from the Middle Cambrian Burgess Shale, British Columbia, Canada PLoS ONE, 7 (1) DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0029233