There are strange creatures in the early fossil record. Typhloesus is an ancient sea animal that has been referred to as an alien goldfish.
The bloblike animal has never been placed in a proper classification. Scientists were unsure if the animal, which had a large tail fin and a large gut, was related to a worm or something else entirely.
The Typhloesus fossils may bring these strange animals down to earth. The branch of the tree of life that Typhloesus belongs to is found by using it. It's no longer a problem.
The Typhloesus specimen that had recently been added to the Royal Ontario Museum collection was discovered by Dr. Caron and Simon Conway Morris. The fossils were dug up from the Bear Gulch Limestone in Montana.
Most of the ancient sea creatures are easy to identify because they are imprinted on the limestone. Scientists have been puzzled by Typhloesus since it was described. The vaguely fishlike creature was once thought to be a conodont. The remains of the conodonts were found in the animal's stomach. Scientists concluded that Typhloesus had eaten on conodonts.
A ribbonlike structure studded with recurved teeth on both sides was spotted by Dr. Caron when he stuck several of the newly gained specimen under a high powered scanning microscope. The tiny teeth in the animal's gut are mistaken for muscle tissue by previous analyses.
The radula is a tongue like structure covered in teeth that snails and other mollusks use to eat. According to the researchers, the structure in Typhloesus was most likely attached to a trunk. Typhloesus covered its mouth with its teeth when it approached an undulating conodont.
Scientists deduced that the alien goldfish was a mollusk because of its toothy radula.
Christopher Whalen is a paleontologist at the American Museum of Natural History and was not involved in the new study. All mollusks have radulas.
It's hard to say what type of mollusk Typhloesus was. The creature was similar to the sea elephants, according to Dr. Caron. Typhloesus is a hunting style similar to the one proposed by the new study. The large tail fin and flexible body of Typhloesus suggest that it was an active swimmer that propelled itself through the water column.
The Typhloesus fossils are over 100 million years old. According to Dr. Whalen, this may be due to the lack of shells in the sea, which made them more maneuverable in the water. They are hard to find in most fossil deposits.
Paleontologists can learn more about the evolution of mollusks by knowing more about Typhloesus. The strangest animals have the most important stories to tell.
These strange fossils show the twists that life can give us. They show a lot of important evolutionary information.
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