Study uncovered, early ancestors of shrimp were quite large but peaceful creatures

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MEXICO: A recently conducted study revealed that early ancestors of today’s shrimp were quite large, but were known to be peaceful creatures.
The findings of the study published in the latest issue of the journal nature stated that the animals described in the study are called anomalocaridids.
Scientists associated with the study said that these animals lived very similar to today’s enormous baleen whales than modern tiny shrimp.
Lead author of the study Peter Van Roy of Yale University and Ghent University, along with his colleagues Allison Daley and Derek Briggs, focused upon remains of a particular anomalocaridid, Aegirocassis benmoulae, which could grow up to 7-feet-long.
The team told that the huge size of A. benmoulae indicates about a much earlier example of a filter-feeding lifestyle correlating to gigantism.
It was told that the remains of the species were unearthed at a site in Morocco. The creature’s anatomy shows that it would have passively strained out plankton and other nutrients suspended in water.
Calms, Krill, sponges, baleen whales, certain sharks, flamingos, some ducks, and other animals are also filter feeders, said researchers. But this marine was an early ancestor of shrimp, including other crustaceans, insects and spiders, they added.
Researchers after close examination of the creature said that its trunk segments have flaps that bear a resemblance to either walking limbs or gill flaps seen on the trunks of modern insects, spiders and crustaceans.
In addition, scientists have also found some older relatives of these ancient animals, nearly 500 million years old. According to them, those animals’ species were smaller and were not adapted for filter feeding.
According to Van Roy and his team, there were a lot of huge filter feeders, suggesting that the waters from Morocco were rich with nutrients at this very early pre-dinosaur time.