Mystery of half-billion year old creature with no anus solved

Image source, University of Bristol

A 500 million-year-old creature with a mouth but no anus has been solved by scientists.

It was thought that the tiny fossil of this sack-like marine beast could be the earliest known ancestors of humans.

The ancient animal was placed into a group.

The primitive ancestors of humans are included in this list.

According to a new study, there should be a different group of animals.

The ecdysozoans are the ancestors of spiders and insects, and a team of researchers in China and the UK concluded that this creature is one of them.

The animal didn't have an anus.

Emily said that it was a bit confusing that most ecdysozoans have an anus.

She said that one of the "intriguing options" is that the ancestors of this group did not have anus.

"Maybe it didn't need one because it could just sit in one spot with one opening for everything, and that's all it needed."

The main reason for the repositioning of Saccorhytus is that it was thought to be a primitive feature of deuterostomes.

Scientists used powerful X-rays to look at the 1mm creature closely and discovered that the base of the spines had snapped off.

Scientists studying these fossils try to place each animal on a tree of life in order to understand where they came from and how they evolved

"Saccorhytus would have lived in the ocean with its spines holding it in place," said Ms Carlisle.

It would have sat there in a very strange environment with a lot of animals that looked alien, but we don't think it would have survived.

Image source, Cambridge University

The rocks are being looked at.

There's a lot we can learn from its environment.

The more I study the subject, the more I realize how little is known. We are just scratching the surface of this creature and its world.

Image source, University of Bristol

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