The
discovery of a fossil showing an ancient sea creature with 18 tentacles
surrounding its mouth has helped to solve a modern-day mystery about the
origins of a gelatinous carnivore called a comb jelly, a new study finds.
The
previously unknown "sea monster," which scientists dubbed Daihua
sanqiong, lived a whopping 518 million years ago in what is now China. And the
extinct animal shares a number of anatomical characteristics with the modern
comb jelly, a little sea creature that uses so-called comb rows full of loads
of hair-like cilia to swim through the oceans.
The
discovery suggests that this newfound species may be the comb jelly's distant
relative, said study lead researcher Jakob Vinther, a paleobiologist at Bristol
University in the United Kingdom. [Photos:
Ancient Shrimp-Like Critter Was Tiny But Fierce]
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