The Maotianshan schists are a real box of surprises for paleontologists. In this geological area of southern China, also known as Chengjiang biota, numerous fossils with more than 500 million years have been unearthed, at the dawn of complex life: worms, crab-like arthropods and lobsters …
But sometimes unclassifiable remains appear, such as the one just released by a multidisciplinary team from the universities of Yunna (China), Leicester and Oxford, led by Professor Xianguang Hou.
The appearance of the fossil –exceptionally well preserved– could be reminiscent, to look for a similarity, of a squashed nest, and it is the footprint of an extravagant animal that may have belonged to the Chancelloriidae family. This extinct lineage of the lower Cambrian was characterized by having a globe shape and an external skeleton of defensive spines.
“ Only one fossil of this enigmatic creature has been found after 30 years of searching . It is an example of the variety of forms that animals can take, ”said Tom Harvey of the University of Leicester, co-author of the study. Baptized with the scientific name of Nilderic pugio and dated to 520 million years old, the new species sheds light on the way in which those primitive animals lived, interacted with other species and defended themselves against their enemies.
Photo: Professor Derek J Siveter / University of Oxford
