Tiny, spiny creature was a terminator
WASHINGTON — Long before dinosaurs roamed the Earth, a bizarre creature with a Venus flytrap-like head swam the seas.
Scientists have uncovered fossils of a tiny, faceless prehistoric sea worm with 50 spines jutting out of its head. When some unsuspecting critter came too close, its jaw-like spines snapped together, and dinner was served.
The discovery reported in Thursday’s journal Current Biology offers a glimpse into the Cambrian explosion of life on Earth about 541 million years ago.
The new creature dubbed Capinatator praetermissus is so different that scientists said the fossils represent not only a new species, but a new genus — a larger grouping of life — as well.
It was only 4 inches long, and its spines were about one-third of an inch long. It feasted on smaller plankton and shrimplike creatures.
It is an ancestor of a group of marine arrow worms called chaetognatha that are abundant in the world’s oceans. The prehistoric version was larger and with far more spines in its facial armory but without the specialized teeth of its descendants, said Derek Briggs of Yale University, who led a team that discovered the trove of fossils in two national parks in British Columbia, Canada.
Capinatator — whose name translates to grasping swimmer — lived 500 million years ago at a time when creatures started getting bigger and more diverse.