One of the earliest apex predators, and perhaps the freakiest to ever haunt the sea, may have also been a delicate eater.
For decades, paleontologists have assumed that the long-extinct Anomalocaris canadensis — roughly translated as “the abnormal shrimp from Canada” — used two spiny appendages on its face to grab hard trilobites off the seafloor and crush and eat them. But a new analysis suggests the bizarre hunter may not have been up to the task. Instead, A. canadensis may have swiftly hunted soft prey in the water, researchers report in the July 12 Proceedings of the Royal Society B.
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