Monsters “travel through space” 450 million years in the most absurd way in the world

According to Science Alert, a new fossil species, named Tomlinsonus dimitrii, has been discovered near the eastern shore of Lake Simcoe in Southern Ontario – Canada, a world-famous “fossil mine”.

This monster is quite small – the body length is only 6 cm – but has an extremely strange shape: No eyes, possesses an ornately patterned shield on its head, 2 curved horns covered Because of its feathery spines, the segmented body resembles that of modern arthropods such as insects and spiders.

Among its pairs of limbs is also an unusual pair, extremely long, attached below the head, at the end of which are two “feet”.

The monster belongs to an extinct group of arthropods that lived about 450 million years ago, or the Ordovician period – a team of scientists led by researcher Joseph Moysiuk from the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM – Canada) ) said.

But the most shocking thing about this little monster is not its bizarre shape, but how it has appeared intact in the fossils, as if “passed through the air” from 450 years ago to the modern world. Because it is a mollusk.

Usually only hard materials can be fossilized, for example dinosaur bones, egg shells. The fact that soft tissues are preserved is extremely rare in the world, complete preservation like this is almost unbelievable.

The researchers believe that this particular case can only occur when some unusual, catastrophic event rapidly “freezes” the organism, most likely a sudden flood of mud, then the thick mud flows continuously accreted. This is how the shocking petrified remains of Pompeii were made – people covered in volcanic ash in an instant.

The study was published in the Journal of Paleontogy.