The new species, Yawunik kootenayi, lived more than 250 million years before the first dinosaurs. It is described in the latest issue of the journal Paleontology.
“This creature is expanding our perspective on the anatomy and predatory habits of the first arthropods, the group to which spiders and lobsters belong,” lead author Cedric Aria of the University of Toronto said in a press release.
“It has the signature features of an arthropod with its external skeleton, segmented body and jointed appendages, but lacks certain advanced traits present in groups that survived until the present day,” Aria added. “We say that it belongs to the ‘stem’ of arthropods.”
The fossil is the first new species to be described from the Marble Canyon site at the Canadian Burgess Shale located in British Columbia’s Kootenay National Park. The animal’s name therefore takes on “Kootenay.”
As for “Yawunik,” the word refers to a mythological figure that the native Ktunaxa people recognize. This legendary beast was a huge and fierce marine predator, which caused such killing mayhem that it triggered an epic hunt by other animals to bring the threat down.
In terms of the non-fiction Yawunik, close examination of the animal’s remains reveals that the individual had long front appendages that look like the antennae of modern beetles or shrimp. These appendages, however, were composed of three long claws, two of which had opposing rows of teeth.
Yawunik could move these front appendages backward and forward. The researchers believe this predator spread them out during an attack, and then retracted them under its body when swimming.
“Unlike insects or crustaceans, Yawunik did not possess additional appendages in the head that were specifically modified to process food,” said Aria. “Evolution resulted here in a combination of adaptations onto the frontal-most appendage of this creature, maybe because such modifications were easier to acquire.”
Read more at Discovery News
No comments:
Post a Comment