Paleontologists constantly search for new species of fossilized creatures from the distant past to expand our understanding of the history of life on Earth. In 2024 an international research team reported an important finding. They were studying fossils from a 540 million year old rock formation in the remote wilderness of northern Greenland. The formation dates from a period in Earth’s history that geologists call the Cambrian.
This period is of special importance in the history of life on Earth. The fossil record shows that microbial life, and some simple forms of life with many cells, have existed on Earth for billions of years. It was during the Cambrian that the first clear examples of aquatic members of modern animal groups appear for the first time. The new fossils that the paleontologists found may be among Earth’s first predatory animals.
The fossil discovery is of a worm-like creature with fins down the sides of its body, a distinct head with long antennae, and massive jaw structures inside its mouth. The researchers found and studied 13 fossilized specimens of the animal. They were as much as a foot long, making them giants by the standards of the times. The digestive tract contained the fossilized remains of small animals, confirming that the creature was a predator. The creature’s closest modern relatives are much smaller worms called arrow worms. The researchers named their new find Timorebestia, which is Latin for ‘terror beast’. Because of its size, they think it was at the top of the aquatic food chain of its times, much like sharks or seals today.
Reviewer: Shelly Jean Wernette, Texas State University
Read more
- The Earth's core and the evolution of complex life
- PBS Eons - From the Cambrian explosion to the great dying
- The gap in the Grand Canyon's rock record
Sources
- ScienceDaily - 'Giant' predator worms more than half a billion years old discovered in North Greenland
- CNN - Newly discovered large predator worms ruled the seas as Earth's earliest carnivores, study finds
- IFLScience - Giant predatory worms dating back 518 million years found in Greenland
- New Atlas - 'Giant' predatory worm half a billion years old unearthed in Greenland
- Atlas Obscura - Half a billion years ago, these 'terror beasts' ruled the seas
- Tech Expert - Giant predator worms, over half a billion years old, found in North Greenland
- Science Advances - A giant stem-group chaetognanth
Paleontologists constantly search for new species of fossilized creatures from the distant past to expand our understanding of the history of life on Earth. In 2024 an international research team reported an important finding. They were studying fossils from a five hundred and forty million year old rock formation in the remote wilderness of northern Greenland. The formation dates from a period in Earth’s history that geologists call the Cambrian.
This period is of special importance in the history of life on Earth. The fossil record shows that microbial life, and some simple forms of life with many cells, have existed on Earth for billions of years. It was during the Cambrian that the first clear examples of aquatic members of modern animal groups appear for the first time. The new fossils that the paleontologists found may be among Earth’s first predatory animals.
The fossil discovery is of a worm-like creature with fins down the sides of its body, a distinct head with long antennae, and massive jaw structures inside its mouth. The researchers found and studied 13 fossilized specimens of the animal. They were as much as a foot long, making them giants by the standards of the times. The digestive tract contained the fossilized remains of small animals, confirming that the creature was a predator. The creature’s closest modern relatives are much smaller worms called arrow worms. The researchers named their new find Timorebestia, which is Latin for ‘terror beast’. Because of its size, they think it was at the top of the aquatic food chain of its times, much like sharks or seals today.