Post by persilla on Jan 21, 2024 3:09:39 GMT
By Austin Harvey allthatsinteresting.com/
Researchers in northern Greenland recently uncovered fossils of giant predator worms that ruled the oceans 518 million years ago — and they dubbed them 'terror beasts'.
These massive worms, named Timorebestia — meaning 'terror beasts' in Latin — were some of Earth's earliest carnivorous aquatic animals, according to a release from the research team at the University of Bristol.
The ancient predators had bodies lined with fins, long antennae protruding from their heads and massive jaw structures. Reaching nearly a foot in length, they were among the largest ocean creatures during the Early Cambrian period.
"We have previously known that primitive arthropods were the dominant predators during the Cambrian," says Dr. Jakob Vinther, a senior author on the study, which was published in Science Advances. "However, Timorebestia is a distant, but close relative of living arrow worms or chaetognaths. These are much smaller ocean predators today that feed on tiny zooplankton."
As Vinther explains, research into these ancient ecosystems has shown that they were 'fairly complex' and had 'a food chain that allowed for several tiers of predators'.
Researchers in northern Greenland recently uncovered fossils of giant predator worms that ruled the oceans 518 million years ago — and they dubbed them 'terror beasts'.
These massive worms, named Timorebestia — meaning 'terror beasts' in Latin — were some of Earth's earliest carnivorous aquatic animals, according to a release from the research team at the University of Bristol.
The ancient predators had bodies lined with fins, long antennae protruding from their heads and massive jaw structures. Reaching nearly a foot in length, they were among the largest ocean creatures during the Early Cambrian period.
"We have previously known that primitive arthropods were the dominant predators during the Cambrian," says Dr. Jakob Vinther, a senior author on the study, which was published in Science Advances. "However, Timorebestia is a distant, but close relative of living arrow worms or chaetognaths. These are much smaller ocean predators today that feed on tiny zooplankton."
As Vinther explains, research into these ancient ecosystems has shown that they were 'fairly complex' and had 'a food chain that allowed for several tiers of predators'.
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