500million-year-old fossil jellyfish discovered
Researchers from the University of Toronto in Canada discovered a half-billion-year-old fossil jellyfish, Burgessomedusa phasmiformis, in Canada.
Proceedings of the Royal Society B Biological Sciences indicate that this new type of jellyfish, measuring up to 20 cm (without 90 tentacles), lived in the seas of the Cambrian period.
According to scientists, jellyfish are very fragile animals, so their fossils are rarely found in good condition due to the lack of hard tissue. For this reason, it was not well studied and its development was not determined in detail. But after this discovery, everything may change. For example, in the Cambrian period, these animals acquired the “traditional” dome shape with many tentacles, and they could swim and hunt.
The researchers say: “Although jellyfish and their relatives are considered among the first in the group of animals, they are very rarely found in Cambrian fossils in good condition. But this discovery will undoubtedly reveal that she was able to swim at that time.”
The researchers indicate that they found this jellyfish in a mud layer.
Source: gazeta