Ancient fossils of bizarre figure-eight water creatures confirmed among our strangest distant cousin

[n2doc]

A 500-million-year-old fossil used by Australian researchers to make their discovery about vetulicolians. These marine creatures had a rod through their tail similar to a backbone, which places them as distant cousins of vertebrate animals.

More than 100 years since they were first discovered, some of the world's most bizarre fossils have been identified as distant relatives of humans, thanks to the work of University of Adelaide researchers.

The fossils belong to 500-million-year-old blind water creatures, known to scientists as "vetulicolians" (pronounced: ve-TOO-lee-coal-ee-ans).

Alien-like in appearance, these marine creatures were "filter-feeders" shaped like a figure eight. Their strange anatomy has meant that no one has been able to place them accurately on the tree of life, until now.

In a new paper published in BMC Evolutionary Biology, researchers at the University of Adelaide and the South Australian Museum argue for a change in the way these creatures are viewed, placing them with the same group that includes vertebrate animals, such as humans.

more

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/10/141015101341.htm


http://www.torontosun.com/2014/10/15/blind-water-creatures-a-distant-cousin-of-humans-aussie-researchers-say

[littlemissmartypants]

1. Thanks. eom

[oldandhappy]

2. cool

Thank you.

[Solly Mack]

3. K&R

[BlancheSplanchnik]

4. artist's rendering looks like hi-tech maxi-pads.....

ok, I shouldn't have said that. Shame! Shame, I say!








(But I know you laughed.)

[E-Z-B]

5. Did these creatures disappear during the Great Dying? Then they were an evolutionary dead-end.

[Kalidurga]

6. Are they related to trilobites?

[Recursion]

7. Trilobites were arthropods

Their most recent common ancestor with these guys was probably precambrian

[ffr]

8. I love Earth! What a mysterious and magical place we've found to call home.

If only this were commonplace, even within our own solar system.

[kestrel91316]

9. Those look like ginormous flea tapeworms.

[Diclotican]

10. n2doc

n2doc

We really do have some wierd looking relatives back in the days Even if it is a distant cusin if our own

Diclotican