Capinatator
Name:
Capinatator
(grasping swimmer).
Phonetic: Kap-e-na-ta-tor.
Named By: Derek E. G. Briggs &
Jean-Bernard Caron - 2017.
Classification: Animalia, Protostomia,
Spiralia, Gnathifera, Chaetognatha.
Species: C. praetermissus
(type).
Diet: Carnivore?
Size: About 10 centimetres long.
Known locations: Canada, British Columbia -
Burgess Shale.
Time period: Mid Cambrian.
Fossil representation: Almost complete
Capinatator
is a prehistoric form of what we today would call an arrow worm.
Capinatator had a ten centimetre long elongated
body, while around
the head fifty, one centimetre long hooked spines grew
around the edges of a very rudimentary mouth. These spines flared out
so that as Capinatator swam through the water,
smaller organisms,
and perhaps other floating organic matter, would be snared within
the cage of spines as they closed around them, and taken into the
mouth.
At
ten centimetres long, Capinatator is amongst the
largest
chaetognathan worms ever discovered, and has nearly double the number
of spines in living worms.
Further reading
- A Large Cambrian
Chaetognath with Supernumerary Grasping Spines. - Current Biology.
27 (16). - Derek E. G. Briggs & Jean-Bernard
Caron
- 2017.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Random favourites
 |
 |
|