Scientists have discovered a fossil with lobster-like features that lived 480 million years ago – the only difference is the crustacean ancestor was the size of a human!

The lobster like creature was six feet long and is the earliest filter-feeder ever discovered.

Giant lobster ancestor

Researchers from Oxford University and Yale found the well-preserved fossil in Morocco and reported their findings in Nature.

The creature was remarkably preserved in 3D unlike most squashed fossils.

The fossil was first discovered by Mohamed Ben Moula, fossil hunter, and has been named after him: Aegirocassis benmoulae. Aegirocassis can be broken down to ‘Aegir’ which is a Norse sea god and ‘cassis’ refers to helmet.

The prehistoric creature belongs to an early family of sea dwellers called ‘anomalocaridids’, which date back to the Cambrian period. This newly discovered species was probably one of the last of its kind.

What have we learnt from the fossil?

The 3D preservation of the fossil means scientists have been able to examine the animals anatomy first-hand. It was 2 metres long and used its limbs to gather food from the ocean. It had a pair of fins along both sides of its body, which are similar attributes to the double limbs of its living relatives.

Most anomalocaridids were known to hunt and eat other marine animals, but the Aegirocassis appears to be an exception. It would’ve used its head appendages to trap tiny morsels of food, suggesting it was a filter feeder like the modern-day whale.

Dr Allison Daley from Oxford University has commented: ‘These animals are filling an ecological role that hadn’t previously been filled by any other animal.

‘While filter feeding is probably one of the oldest ways for animals to find food, previous filter feeders were smaller and usually attached to the sea floor.’

‘We have found the oldest example of gigantism in a freely swimming filter feeder.’

Derek Briggs from Yale University additionally adds: ‘It implies there was a rich source of plankton at the time, upon which these things may have fed.’

The discovery of the Aegirocassis benmoulae may help palaeontologists to explain the evolution between anomalocaridids and arthropods.



Photo sourced from: www.bbc.co.uk