520m-year-old fossil of 'balloon-shaped' animal reveals secrets of ancient oceans
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The fossil of an ancient animal covered with spines that resembles a 'squashed bird's nest', could shed new light on life in Earth's ancient seas.
Nidelric pugio lived 520 million years ago and belonged to a group of bizarre, balloon-shaped animals called chancelloriids, which had an outer skeleton of defensive spines.
Its fossilised remains were unearthed in Chengjiang, in southern China, and is nmow offering a glimpse into how early life functioned.
The 'Nidelric pugio' lived 520 million years ago and it its fossil resembles a squashed birds nest, according to experts. This imahe shows the whole creature, which measures three-and-a-half inches (9cm) long
The animal was flattened during the fossilisation process, giving it a squashed appearance.
The rocks where it was found yielded a diverse array of fossils preserved with traces of their soft anatomy, including their legs, eyes, guts and even brains.
Most of the fossils are animals that can be related to modern forms, including distant relatives of arthropods such as crabs and lobsters and a wide variety of worms.
But among them are several enigmatic fossils that don't seem to fit in with anything living today, including chancelloriids.
The ancient creature belonged to a group of bizarre, balloon-shaped animals called chancelloriids, which had an outer skeleton of defensive spines. This image shows individual spines, which are a few millimetres long
Dr Tom Harvey from the University of Leicester said: 'There is only one fossil of this enigmatic animal after 30 years of collecting by our Chinese colleagues at Chengjiang.
'It is exceptionally rare, but it shows us just how strange and varied the shapes of early animals could be.
Tom Hearing, a PhD student from Leicester's Department of Geology who is working on the skeletons of Cambrian fossils, said: 'We usually only get the broken-up remains of ancient animal skeletons.
'With this specimen we can see how all the different parts of the skeleton stuck together.
'It tells us much about how early animals functioned, how they might have interacted with other animals, and how they might have protected themselves from predators.'
The creature was unearthed by Professor Xianguang Hou from the Yunnan Key Laboratory for Palaeobiology at Yunnan University in China, in collaboration with the Universities of Leicester and Oxford. It was described in the journal Scientific Reports.
The fossil has been named in honour of University of Leicester palaeontologist Professor Richard Aldridge who was a world leader in Chengjiang fossil research and passed away earlier this year.
The name of the fossil is derived from the Latin Nidus, meaning 'bird's nest' or 'fancied resemblance to' and adelric, which comes from from the Old English personal name 'Aedelic' - 'adel' meaning 'noble' and 'ric' meaning 'a ruler'- which is a source for the name Aldridge.
The fossil has been named in honour of University of Leicester palaeontologist Professor Richard Aldridge (pictured) who was a world leader in Chengjiang fossil research and passed away earlier this year
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