One of the earliest creatures of the Cambrian "ocean of monsters" has emerged remarkably intact in a rock slab in China's Yunnan province.
Portrait of a new monster revealed in Yunnan province - China - (Graphic photo: X. Wang).
Like most Cambrian monsters, this creature - named Kylinxia zhangi - has unimaginable characteristics, strange compared to the animal world today.
According to Sci-News, it is about the size of a large shrimp, with three eyes on its head and a pair of terrifying legs that also grow right from its head, looking like two large pincers used to catch prey. In addition, its four rear body segments each carry an additional pair of jointed legs.
Paleontologists from Yunnan University (China), the University of Leicester and the Natural History Museum of London (UK) used micro-CT scans to reconstruct the monster. The analysis also showed that it was 518 million years old.
"Kylinxia zhangi occupies a pivotal position in arthropod evolution," said researcher Robert O'Flynn from the University of Leicester.
This also confirms the area where it emerged – the Chengjiang complex in Yunnan province – as a place that could help build an understanding of early arthropod evolution.
Although hit by subsequent mass extinctions, the Cambrian biota laid an important foundation for the planet's living world. They also represent the greatest "biological explosion" of all, when life evolved from simple primitive organisms to complex species.
