Adorned with fins down the sides of its body, a distinct head with long antennae, massive jaw structures inside its mouth and growing to more than 30 cm (11.8 inches) in length, Timorebestia koprii was one of the largest animals in the Early Cambrian oceans.
Timorebestia koprii lived in the Early Cambrian oceans, more than 518 million years ago.
The animal’s fossilized remains were found at the Sirius Passet fossil locality in North Greenland.
“We have previously known that primitive arthropods were the dominant predators during the Cambrian, such as the bizarre-looking anomalocaridids,” said Dr. Jakob Vinther, a paleontologist at the University of Bristol.
“However, Timorebestia koprii is a distant, but close, relative of living arrow worms, or chaetognaths. These are much smaller ocean predators today that feed on tiny zooplankton.”
“Our research shows that these ancient ocean ecosystems were fairly complex with a food chain that allowed for several tiers of predators.”
“Timorebestia were giants of their day and would have been close to the top of the food chain. That makes it equivalent in importance to some of the top carnivores in modern oceans, such as sharks and seals back in the Cambrian period.”
Inside the fossilised digestive system of Timorebestia koprii, Dr. Vinther and colleagues found remains of a common, swimming arthropod called Isoxys.
“We can see these arthropods was a food source many other animals,” siad Dr. Morten Lunde Nielsen, a paleontologist at Korea Polar Research Institute, the University of Bristol and British Geological Survey.
“They are very common at Sirius Passet and had long protective spines, pointing both forwards and backwards.”
“However, they clearly didn’t completely succeed in avoiding that fate, because Timorebestia munched on them in great quantities.”
“Arrow worms are one of the oldest animal fossils from the Cambrian. While arthropods appear in the fossil record about 521 to 529…
Read the full article here