Cambrian explosion

Tardigrades. Water bears. Moss piglets. No matter their name, the microscopic invertebrates are notoriously tough, and now, a team of researchers studied the tardigrade’s ancestors to figure out how the animal evolved.What Drew John Boyega Back Into Sci-Fi? | io9 InterviewThe research team studied lobopodians, a group of extinct soft-bodied worms from the Cambrian Period, and modern tardigrades to determine whichfeatures of the latter group were inherited from the former. The team’s findings were published this week in…

Hidden inside a rocky outcrop near a flock of grazing sheep, a miniature world of marine creatures—whose guts, eyes and even brains remain visible after some 462 million years—has been uncovered by researchers. Paleontologists Lucy Muir and Joseph Botting discovered the pint-sized fossil trove within walking distance from their home at Castle Bank Quarry in Central Wales. At the time the aquatic creatures were alive, this area was a rocky sea shelf fringing a volcanic island. In a new study published online on May 1 in…

Paleontologists have discovered a bizarre worm-like creature from the Cambrian Period that has features associated with three groups of living animals. Just a half-inch long and covered in bristles, the armored Wufengella is providing clues as to how ancient filter-feeders evolved.Wufengella is about 518 million years old, timing it toward the tail-end of the Cambrian explosion. The Cambrian explosion was a period of remarkable evolutionary diversification in animal life. Life on the seafloor particularly flourished:…