![]() ![]() (More recently, some researchers have determined that hyoliths - an extinct animal known by their conical shells ( SN: 1/11/17) - are also lophophorates because of the tentacled organ that surrounds their mouth.) And phoronids, or horseshoe worms, are unsegmented, soft-bodied creatures that live in stationary, tubelike structures. Bryozoans - commonly known as moss animals - are microscopic sedentary critters that live in corallike colonies. Brachiopods are shelled animals that at first glance resemble clams. But beyond that commonality, the phyla are all quite different. ![]() One thing that ties together the different phyla of the group is their tentacle-like feeding tubes known as lophophores. This Wufengella fossil, found in China, is roughly 520 million years old and sports several features common to sea creatures known as lophophorates. During this time, lophophorates experienced a rapid growth of species, which has obscured the group’s evolutionary history. Roughly half a billion years ago, nearly all major animal groups burst onto the scene in a flurry of evolutionary diversification during what’s known as the Cambrian explosion ( SN: 4/24/19). “We had been speculating that may have been some wormy animal that had plates on its back,” says Vinther, of the University of Bristol in England. An ancient, armored worm may be the key to unraveling the evolutionary history of a diverse collection of marine invertebrates.ĭiscovered in China, a roughly 520-million-year-old fossil of the newly identified worm, dubbed Wufengella, might be the missing link between three of the phyla that constitute a cadre of sea creatures called lophophorates.īased on a genetic analysis, Wufengella is probably the common ancestor that connects brachiopods, bryozoans and phoronid worms, paleontologist Jakob Vinther and colleagues report September 27 in Current Biology. ![]()
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