Paleontologists recently discovered a 506-million-year-old “moth-like” predator that lurked in prehistoric Canada.
In a press release from the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM), officials identified the creature as Mosura fentoni, an extinct arthropod, as news agencies including SWNS reported.
The museum reported that almost all of the Mosura fossils were collected by ROM paleontologists at Raymond Quarry in Yoho National Park in British Columbia.
Most were found between 1975 and 2022.
“Mosura fentoni was concerning the size of your index finger and had three eyes, spiny jointed claws, a circular mouth lined with teeth and a body with swimming flaps along its sides,” the museum noted.
“These traits show it to be a part of an extinct group often called the radiodonts, which also included the famous Anomalocaris canadensis, a meter-long predator that shared the waters with Mosura.”
What makes the invention so interesting to researchers is that Mosura had an abdomen-like body region made up of multiple segments at its back end – which had not been previously observed in any radiodonts.
Joe Moysiuk, a curator of paleontology and geology on the Manitoba Museum, said Mosurahad 16 of those segments, all lined with gills.
“This can be a neat example of evolutionary convergence with modern groups, like horseshoe crabs, woodlice and insects, which share a batch of segments bearing respiratory organs on the rear of the body,” Moysiuk described.
The museum reported that the species has been nicknamed the “sea-moth” by field collectors based on its moth-like attributes.
“This inspired its scientific name, which references the fictional Japanese kaiju also often called Mothra. Only distantly related to real moths – in addition to spiders, crabs, and millipedes – Mosura belongs on a much deeper branch within the evolutionary tree of those animals, collectively often called arthropods,” the statement added.
Interestingly, the fossils show details of Mosura’s internal anatomy – including its nervous system, circulatory system, and digestive tract.
As an alternative of arteries and veins, Mosura’s heart pumped blood into large internal body cavities called lacunae.
ROM curator Jean-Bernard Caron said that “few fossil sites on the earth offer this level of insight into soft internal anatomy.”
“We are able to see traces representing bundles of nerves within the eyes that might have been involved in image processing, identical to in living arthropods,” the expert added.
“The small print are astounding.”
Paleontologists recently discovered a 506-million-year-old “moth-like” predator that lurked in prehistoric Canada.
In a press release from the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM), officials identified the creature as Mosura fentoni, an extinct arthropod, as news agencies including SWNS reported.
The museum reported that almost all of the Mosura fossils were collected by ROM paleontologists at Raymond Quarry in Yoho National Park in British Columbia.
Most were found between 1975 and 2022.
“Mosura fentoni was concerning the size of your index finger and had three eyes, spiny jointed claws, a circular mouth lined with teeth and a body with swimming flaps along its sides,” the museum noted.
“These traits show it to be a part of an extinct group often called the radiodonts, which also included the famous Anomalocaris canadensis, a meter-long predator that shared the waters with Mosura.”
What makes the invention so interesting to researchers is that Mosura had an abdomen-like body region made up of multiple segments at its back end – which had not been previously observed in any radiodonts.
Joe Moysiuk, a curator of paleontology and geology on the Manitoba Museum, said Mosurahad 16 of those segments, all lined with gills.
“This can be a neat example of evolutionary convergence with modern groups, like horseshoe crabs, woodlice and insects, which share a batch of segments bearing respiratory organs on the rear of the body,” Moysiuk described.
The museum reported that the species has been nicknamed the “sea-moth” by field collectors based on its moth-like attributes.
“This inspired its scientific name, which references the fictional Japanese kaiju also often called Mothra. Only distantly related to real moths – in addition to spiders, crabs, and millipedes – Mosura belongs on a much deeper branch within the evolutionary tree of those animals, collectively often called arthropods,” the statement added.
Interestingly, the fossils show details of Mosura’s internal anatomy – including its nervous system, circulatory system, and digestive tract.
As an alternative of arteries and veins, Mosura’s heart pumped blood into large internal body cavities called lacunae.
ROM curator Jean-Bernard Caron said that “few fossil sites on the earth offer this level of insight into soft internal anatomy.”
“We are able to see traces representing bundles of nerves within the eyes that might have been involved in image processing, identical to in living arthropods,” the expert added.
“The small print are astounding.”
