Experts
thought that Cotyledion tylodes may have belonged to the jellyfish-like
cnidarian group.
But
new anatomical evidence from the animal's fossilised remains suggests the
species was an early member of the group of small marine organisms called
entoprocts.
The
findings are published in the journal Scientific
Reports.
Results
of the study, by an international research team, suggest that entoprocts
appeared earlier than previously thought.
Entoprocts
are small organisms that feed by straining food particles from water.
Scientists
analysed hundreds of Cotyledion tylodes fossils preserved in the
Chengjiang fossil site in Yunnan province, China, dating from the Cambrian
geological period (545 to 495 million years ago).
To
date, the only uncontested fossil entoproct comes from the Jurassic (205 to 142
million years ago).
Read on: http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/21029364
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