A new cigar-shaped fossilized creature that existed around 520 million years ago has been excavated.
According to the co-author of the study, Andrew Smith, this brand new species called Helicocystis moroccoensis, has the qualities that make it one of the most primitive echinoderm that has fivefold characteristic. Smith, a paleontologist from London’s Natural History Museum, was referring to the group of creatures which includes sea urchins and starfish. Typical modern echinoderms normally have five-point symmetries, like the sand dollar’s unique pattern or the starfish’s five arms.
The prehistoric sea creature may even have the capabilities of changing its body shape from being slim to being squat. Researchers agree that this may be the intermediary animal that can shed light on how early echinoderms have evolved their exceptional body plans.
Smith and his team of were excavating sediments in 2012, which were said to be around 520 million years old in the Anti-Atlas Mountains of Morocco. Here they discovered some of the specimens of the fossils.
It is estimated that the creature resided in the prehistoric supercontinent Gondwana on during the Cambrian Explosion. During this period, most creatures were living in the seas, and diversity was very dramatic in the planet.
Helicoplacus, one of the oldest known echinoderms was excavated in the White Mountains of California. It has the same spiral body, however asymmetrical in plan. This raised the question of how the unique five-point body plan of the echinoderms started and when.
The small sea creatures started to change their shapes using a twirling arrangement of five ambulacra. These are grooves that came from the mouth which opened and close to catch small particles of food that’s floating in water..
Smith also concluded that this new discovered species is the oldest known echinoderm that has the five ambulacra characteristics, and shows how the echinoderm evolved their one-of-a-kind body plans.
The report was initially published in the June 25 issue of the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B.
