Palaeontology

Wormlike creature is 'strange beyond measure'

By T.K. Randall
December 3, 2017 ·  4 comments

The creature looks like nothing else on Earth. Image Credit: CC BY 4.0 Zhao, F. et al. Scientific Reports. 2017 Described as being like a 'mythical beast', this bizarre helmeted wormlike animal lived in the ocean around 500 million years ago and had a series of spikes like cocktail sticks running down its back.

Known as Orthrozanclus elongate, the species is quite unlike anything else on the fossil record.

"Odder still, its head is covered by a small shell, almost as if it's wearing a bike helmet," said Martin Smith, an assistant professor at Durham University.

"We don't know much about the animal underneath these mineralised plates - whether it had legs or a slug-like foot, [and] whether it had teeth or tentacles."

Source: Telegraph | Comments (4)

Tags: Orthrozanclus