Date: February 6, 2017
Source: University of Bristol
Scientists from the University of
Bristol have uncovered a 480-million-year-old slug-like fossil in Morocco which
sheds new light on the evolution of molluscs -- a diverse group of
invertebrates that includes clams, snails and squids.
One of the defining characteristics
of the molluscs is the possession of a radula, a kind of toothed-tongue which
is used to rake up or rasp food.
The radula houses hundreds of
teeth, the patterns of which can be used to determine diet and identify
species. Whilst not all molluscs have a radula, a radula cannot be found in any
other group of animals. Dr Jakob Vinther, from the Schools of Biological
Sciences and Earth Sciences, is lead author of the study, which is published
today in Nature.
He said: "The molluscs are
amongst the earliest animals identifiable in the fossil record, however
determining what their ancestor looked like is difficult since many of the
groups appear within a small window of time, making the sequence of
evolutionary events difficult to piece together."
The recent discovery of a new
species of mollusc in the Anti-Atlas region in Morocco has enabled
palaeontologists to revisit this problem and infer the appearance of the
ancestor of all molluscs.
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