When vertebrates did not yet have vertebrae, 500 million years ago

by time news

2024-08-21 14:10:45

INTRODUCTION – This rare fossil also allows us to gain more insight into the evolution of life during the Cambrian explosion.

It measures only a few centimeters. To see it frozen in clay, one might think it is just a simple language or something similar. However, this small animal has nothing to do with crustaceans. And, in spite of the 500 million years that separate us from it, it is even closer to humans than the bark, because it is one of the oldest bloods that have been discovered. In other words, it is the distant ancestor of fish, birds (and other birds), mammals, and more generally of all those animals which, like us, have an internal skeleton of bones and cartilage .

Discovered in the collections of the Utah Museum of Natural History, this precious fossil comes from the arid lands of the west of this state, more precisely from the formation of the Marjum formation, which Rudy Lerosey-Aubril knows as especially well and Javier Ortega-Hernandez (Harvard University, Massachusetts, United States),…

#vertebrates #vertebrae #million #years

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