MEXICO: A fascinating spine-covered fossil of a prehistoric worm has been uncovered by paleontologists working in the south of China. According to Phys.org, Collinsium ciliosum lived a half a billion years ago, and was one of the first known animals on Earth that used body armor for protection against predators.
The strange-looking worm belongs to a group of early invertebrates that scientists know little about. It represents the vast evolutionary diversity of animals at this point in fossil history – its descendants today are lack many unique characteristics by comparison.
The results were published in the journal PNAS by a team of scientists from the University of Cambridge and Yunnan University in China this Tuesday. Also known as the Hairy Collins Monster, after the Canadian paleontologist Desmond Collins, who found a similar fossil in the 80’s. The bizarre worm species existed during the Cambrian explosion, a period almost 542 million years ago when biological diversity catapulted and most well-known animal groups first showed up in the fossil record.
According to an analysis of the fossil’s body features and related species, the Chinese Hairy Collins Monster is most likely a predecessor of the modern velvet worm. Velvet worms, or onychophorans, are a group of small soft-bodied worms that are endemic to tropical forests around the world.
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