Scientists at the University of Toronto have found a strange 500-million-year-old phallus-shaped creature that bears a striking resemblance to some current species of worms. The findextends by 200 million years the fossil record of enteropneustos, cylindrical soft-bodied marine invertebrates, and scientists consider it a key “missing link” to understanding the early evolution of soft-bodied creatures, the researchers published inNature.
The creature, baptized asSpartobranchus fine, it would be a distant relative of starfish and sea urchins. And although it is long extinct, there are other similar-looking worms that live on the sandy or muddy bottoms of today’s marine ecosystems. The discoverers of the species speculate that,Since hundreds of specimens have been found together, it is very likely that Spartobranchus tenuis played an important role in recycling organic matter.fall to the bottom of the sea, an “ecological service” similar to that provided by earthworms today.
Spartobranchus fineIt had a flexible body consisting of a short proboscis located on the head, a collar and a narrow and elongated trunk finished in a bulbous structure that it could use as an anchor. The longest examined measured 10 centimeters.
The place where it was found, theBurgess shales of Yoho National Park, is part of the Canadian Rockies, and constitutes one of the most important fossil deposits on the planet to understand the origin and evolution of animals that took place during the so-calledCambrian explosionapproximately 542 million years ago, and that generated great biodiversity.
