Researchers at the Royal Ontario Museum have named this unusual creature Titanokorys gainesi , a new species of prehistoric arthropod known as a radiodon, which would have lived 500 million years ago. This specimen belongs to the family of the well-known predator Anomalocaris, which existed between the early and mid-Cambrian period and would have measured up to one meter in length. His remains have been found in the ‘Burgess Shale’ of Marble Canyon in Kootenay National Park (Canada).
This primitive arthropod was half a meter long and would have swam in the Cambrian seas of Earth ; a colossal size for a time in evolutionary history when most species were barely the size of a little finger . These were among the largest and most diversified Paleozoic predators. They are wonderful representatives of what is known as the “Cambrian explosion”, in which, about 541 million years ago and over a period of approximately 25 million years, almost all the main types of animals arose in this area and many of the creatures were quite strange, especially when compared with those that survive today.
What was this unusual creature like?
It featured a huge head, multifaceted eyes, a mouth full of disc-shaped teeth, a pair of spiny claws under its head to capture prey, as well as a series of long fins or appendages to move naturally through the aquatic environment. .
This species is undoubtedly one of the largest ever discovered.
Due to the exceptional preservation properties of shale, a sedimentary clay consisting of very fine particles, they were able to identify and then describe the animal in detail.
” Titanokorys gainesi is part of a subgroup of radiodonts, called hurdiids , characterized by an incredibly long head covered by a three-part carapace that took on a myriad of forms, ” said Joe Moysiuk, a student at the University of Toronto and the Museum. Royal Ontario. “The head is so long relative to the body that these animals are actually little more than swimming heads .”
Their limbs at the front looked like multiple stacked rakes and would have been very efficient at carrying whatever they caught with their tiny spines into their mouths. “These enigmatic animals undoubtedly had a great impact on the ecosystems of the Cambrian seabed ,” express the authors, who publish their study in the journal Royal Society Open Science.
It is still unknown why some radiodonts developed such a bewildering variety of headshell shapes and sizes, as among the remains is also a smaller but more abundant relative than Titanokorys, which the researchers named Cambroraster falcatus, a nod to how the shell of his head resembles the Millennium Falcon spaceship from the Star Wars franchise.
Titanokorys fossils and other specimens recovered from the Burgess Shale will be on display in a new gallery opening at the Royal Ontario Museum beginning in December.
Referencia: J.-B. Caron & J. Moysiuk. 2021. A giant nektobenthic radiodont from the Burgess Shale and the significance of hurdiid carapace diversity. Royal Society Open Science. : 210664; doi: 10.1098/rsos.210664
