'Giant' Predator Worms More Than Half-A-Billion Years Old Discovered In North Greenland -- University of Bristol

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Greenland. Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain

University of Bristol

Jan. 3, 2024

Fossils of a new group of animal predators have been located in the Early Cambrian Sirius Passet fossil locality in North Greenland. These large worms may be some of the earliest carnivorous animals to have colonized the water column more than 518 million years ago, revealing a past dynasty of predators that scientists didn't know existed.

The new fossil animals have been named Timorebestia, meaning 'terror beasts' in Latin. Adorned with fins down the sides of their body, a distinct head with long antennae, massive jaw structures inside their mouth, and growing to more than 30cm in length, these were some of the largest swimming animals in the Early Cambrian times.

"We have previously known that primitive arthropods were the dominant predators during the Cambrian, such as the bizarre-looking anomalocaridids," said Dr. Jakob Vinther from the University of Bristol's Schools of Earth Sciences and Biological Sciences, a senior author on the study. "However, Timorebestia is a distant, but close, relative of living arrow worms, or chaetognaths. These are much smaller ocean predators today that feed on tiny zooplankton."

"Our research shows that these ancient ocean ecosystems were fairly complex, with a food chain that allowed for several tiers of predators."

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