Legged, Spikey ‘Worm’ Finds Place in Evolutionary Tree
One of the most bizarre-looking fossils ever found— a worm-like creature with legs, spikes and a head difficult to distinguish from its tail— has found its place in the evolutionary Tree of Life, definitively linking it with a group of modern animals for the first time. One of the most bizarre-looking fossils ever found — a worm-like creature with legs, spikes and a head difficult to distinguish from its tail — has found its place in the evolutionary Tree of Life, definitively linking it with a group of modern animals for the first time.
The animal, known as Hallucigenia because of its otherworldly appearance, had been considered an “evolutionary misfit” as it was not clear how it related to modern animal groups. Researchers from the Univ. of Cambridge have discovered an important link with modern velvet worms, also known as onychophorans, a relatively small group of worm-like animals that live in tropical forests. The results are published in the advance online edition of the journal Nature
