Scientists identify ancient super predator Options

[illriginal]

OTTAWA — Scientists from Canada, Britain and Sweden have pieced together the fossils of a super underwater predator dubbed the Tyrannosaurus rex of the Cambrian era.

New research reveals fossils found in the Rocky Mountains nearly a century ago and thought to be parts of other creatures actually belong to a whole new carnivore that roamed the seas 500 million years ago - the hurdia victoria.

Its T-Rex moniker came from its relatively large size and place atop the food chain. While most sea creatures at the time were smaller than a fingernail, the "hulking" hurdia measures about half a metre long.

The findings, published in the March 20 issue of the journal Science, shed light on the origins of offshoot descendants such as insects, spiders and crustaceans.

Scientists only recently realized American paleontologist Charles Walcott made mistakes cataloguing the treasure trove of fossils he found in British Columbia's Burgess Shale in 1909.

"Back when he found them, he thought they were all separate animals and gave them separate names," said study co-author Allison Daley of Sweden's Uppsala University.

"It was only when my co-author, Desmond Collins, did collecting in the '80s and '90s that he discovered that all these different parts ... were actually different parts of just one animal, the hurdia animal."

In the last decade or so, paleontologists began assembling the hurdia from fossils scattered between the Royal Ontario Museum and the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C.

The Burgess Shale fossils are some of the best-kept specimens of life on Earth more than 500 million years ago. Preserved in the dark shale are soft-bodied creatures that usually rot away before they become fossilized.

Daley, originally from Burlington, Ont., said the hurdia is unlike anything she or her Canadian and British colleagues have seen before.

A pair of spiny claws on its head shovelled food into its gaping and toothy mouth. A large, spiked shell jutting from the front of its head confounds scientists since it is hollow and doesn't seem to protect the rest of the body.

Daley speculates the hurdia may have used the shell to capture and guide prey into its mouth. But the shell also gave the scientists clues about the hurdia's movements.

"I suspect he was actually a slow swimmer, with his huge carapace at the front, which is ridiculous in size," said Jean-Bernard Caron, a curator at the Royal Ontario Museum and another of the study's authors.

"It is almost half the size of the animal itself."

The discovery of the hurdia is important because it helps explain why some creatures developed the way they did, Daley said.

"It was an ancestor to the group called arthropods. This includes things like crustaceans, spiders, centipedes, millipedes, horseshoe crabs, insects," she said.

"This whole group of animals - which is one of the most diverse and one of the largest groups of invertebrates we see today - hurdia is a very early ancestor of that whole group."

Source: http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2009/03...n-predator.html




I'm actually scared of that.

[Maccabee]

Who are these "scientists" and how can I become one? And tldr but how much of that story is evidence and how much is made up/theory?

[Medi]

^ Not really joseph... <_< It has a reputable source.. published in the March 20 issue of the journal Science

It says it was the R-Rex of the Cambrian Sea.. So how big does that make the specimen?

[Maccabee]

Thats just fancy wording! And do you mean T-rex?
Did they find fossils of it? Did you hear about the flying dinosaur some japanese fisherman pulled up! Its crazy how people are still finding things today!

[Medi]

The abridged article posted here said that their findings were fossils... Yes, I meant T-Rex.

[illriginal]

^ Not really joseph... <_< It has a reputable source.. published in the March 20 issue of the journal Science

It says it was the R-Rex of the Cambrian Sea.. So how big does that make the specimen?

It's only 1 meter long

Either way, if I saw that, I'd freakin cry and drown from being stunned in the water.

[Medi]

How come? It's the size of a baby croc.. I thought it was like Moby Dick sized.

[Maccabee]

meter long fossils...hmmm...that sounds very similar to the fossils of...hmmm...a fish.

r-rex...hehe

Edit:

ps: id love to have a im chat debating about evolution. My debating skills are getting a little rusty. And i mean this in all seriousness. Even though it makes me sound like a douche. lol

[illriginal]

How come? It's the size of a baby croc.. I thought it was like Moby Dick sized.

It looks completely alien to me

[shoryuken]

DAM... illmortaall soundd lykee lill pussii rite now..

HAHAHAHA


eff i c dat shiet.. i cookk dat shiet upp.. CHOM CHOM ett up..

[*Janette*]

It's only 1 meter long

I thought it was like Moby Dick sized.

totallyyyyyyyyyy thought about something else there.

i thought the speciment was gigantic at first, too.