alphynix:Cothurnocystis, from the Ordovician (~485-444 mya) of Europe, Morocco, and North America.
alphynix: Cothurnocystis, from the Ordovician (~485-444 mya) of Europe, Morocco, and North America. Measuring about 2.5cm long (1″), it was part of a group of bizarre marine animals called stylophorans. With their flattened bodies, single segmented tail-like appendages, and complete lack of any type of true symmetry, stylophorans looked more like alien lifeforms than any sort of known animal group – but the structure of their calcite armor plates suggest they were actually part of the echinoderms. Some forms show evidence of pharyngeal slits, an ancestral trait to all deuterostomes that was lost in other echinoderms. -- source link
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