Armored worm that lived 500 million years ago: fossil discovered

A worm just 1.3cm covered bristles and protected by a armor. What animal is it? None you’ve ever seen. The international team of researchers who discovered his fossil in China he called it Wufengella and considers it a fundamental piece in theevolution of animals from the Cambrian period to today. The research was published in the magazine Current Biology.

The ancient creature

A stocky and fleshy body covered with a dense array of plaques arranged regularly and by numerous bristles. Wufengella lived 518 million years ago and it looks like a cross between different animals that populate our planet today. It has the segmented body some annelids such as earthworms and polychaete, but it also has this sort of shell like chiton molluscs. Yet it does not belong to anyone phyla (taxonomic groups of the animal kingdom) current.

After carefully analyzing the fossil, the researchers concluded that it is a specimen of the extinct group of tommotiidsdating back to what experts call it Cambrian explosionan event, which took place about 550 million years ago, in which many have made their appearance phyla of complex animals. A decisive turning point in evolution, from mostly unicellular to multicellular beings from which modern animals derive.

A common ancestor

Among the features that have most attracted the attention of scientists is the lofoforo by Wufengella. This is a horseshoe-shaped organ around the mouth that it serves to filter the water retaining oxygen and food, and is still found in animals of the god group Lophophoratain the phyla of the brachiopods, foronidei And bryozoans.