Yon etranj lobopodian blende soti nan Kanbriyen an

Byen bonè lanmè yo Kanbriyen (542-488 milyon ane de sa) had a plethora of strange and bizarre creatures almost unimaginable to even the best sci-fi dreamer. Kòm pètèt youn nan precursor yo nan Arthropoda la (tou Onychophora ak Tardigrada), liyaj yo lobopodian reprezante yon gwoup etranj nan “vè ak janm” that once roamed the ancient sea beds. Exactly how close they are to the true arthropods is up for debate (tree below), but this newly discovered genus and species, Diania cactiformis (walking cactus), represents the most well sclerotized and arthropod-like of any known to date.

This whopping two and a half inch monster helps us understand the transition from a soft bodied worm like creature into a hard-shelled arthropod; it also gives a better impression of how diverse these lobopodian appendages may have been. It’s a fascinating question because the advantage of jointed, sclerotized, limbs was one that exploded and diversified amongst the creatures we know today. Exactly how this happened is not any closer to being resolved, but it appears as if the legs of this animal were sclerotized before the body (arthropodization vs. arthrodization). One small fossil discovered and yet another small insight into evolutionary history.

References

Liu, J., Steiner, M., Dunlop, J., Keupp, H., Shu, D., Ou, Q., Han, J., Zhang, Z., & Zhang, X. (2011). An armoured Cambrian lobopodian from China with arthropod-like appendages Nature, 470 (7335), 526-530 DOI: 10.1038/nature09704

Further reading: A colleagues blog on the lobopodian in Hungarian.