In south eastern Morocco, the remains of a meter long preh
istoric predator
have been found. The fossil shows theat the animal was the precursor of todays shrimp and cuddlefish. This animal had
spiny limbs projecting from its head, and its mouth opened like the lens in a photographic camera (right)
The previous remains of such animals were all about .6 meters long. Derek Briggs, manager of Yale Museum of Natural History, says that it could feed a whole army and it was no doubt very tasty. Also scientists are surprised because it seems that these animals were 30 million years younger then they had thought, coming from around 470 million years ago.
Moroccan sediments cloud preserved these soft bodies which are rarely found. It is thought that these creatures ruled the ocean in pre-dinosaur times, and that it was later extinct to be replaced by fishes.
This article is extremely interesting because it reiterates just the amount of volatile information that we have about all these animals. 30 million years is much much more then we exist and just that one discovery means a whole new ocean and whole new idea about its inhabitants, for 30 million years.
I was really fascinated by this article. The part about the change of 30 million years really impacted me, as the human race has proof of existing just under 200,000 years ago, while tehse animals ruled the earth for so long, and yet it seems we have been here so long we should have met them. Really interesting article.
1 comments:
Interesting Article....
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