New discovery of the body of ancient creatures with tentacles

(Scientists have shed light on the strange creatures whose tentacles live in the sea 520 million years ago.

Experts believe that Cotyledion tylodes belong to a group of cnidarian jellyfish-like organisms. However, new anatomical evidence on their fossils suggests that this species belongs to a group of small marine organisms called entoprocts.

This new discovery was made by a group of researchers from many countries around the world and was published on the Scientific Reports page.

The results of the study showed that entoprocts appeared earlier than previously thought.

Entoprocts are small creatures that feed by filtering pieces of food in the water.

Scientists analyzed hundreds of Cotyledion tylodes fossils stored in the Chengjiang fossil zone in China's Yunnan province, dating from the Cambrian century (545 to 495 million years ago).

So far, the only clear fossil of entoprocts has been identified since the Jurassic period (205 to 142 million years ago).

However, the idea that Cotyledion tylodes of the entoprocts group means that fossils of the entoprocts group will be recorded from the Cambrian period.

Some anatomical features of Cotyledion tylodes are comparable to modern entoprocts, especially the U-shaped intestine with the mouth and anus surrounded by the head of the tentacle.

'This is the first time to confirm that Cotyledion tylodes has a U-shaped gut,' said Zhifei Zhang, a researcher at Northwestern University in China.

This strange creature also has a glass-like body, with an upper chamber and long stalks below.

Ancient Cotyledion tylodes are larger than today's entoprocts. Their bodies are covered by a hard structure called sclerites that are currently not found on modern entoprocts.

The Cambrian period is the era in which many marine species with diverse lifestyles appear abruptly.

Mr. Zhang said the fact that Cotyledion tylodes is thought to belong to the Entoprocts industry reinforces the idea that 'almost all animal industries appear abruptly in the Cambrian century'.

However, some fossils of Lophotrochozoa (interdisciplinary containing the entoprocts group) have been found in fossil records of the Cambrian period.