Anomalocaris is a bizarre extinct animal that lived during the
Cambrian period. Its fossils
were found in the Burgess Shale in the Canadian Rockies in British Columbia,
Canada.
Anomalocaris is thought to have been a predator, and may have preyed upon
Trilobites.
It has been noted that
Trilobites have
upward facing eyes, which would have been useful for detecting a predator such
as Anomalocaris swimming above them (indeed, such eyes would not have evolved without a pressing
need for them).
Anomalocaris was a giant animal for its time, about 2 to 3 feet (60 centimeters to 1 meter)
long. It had segmented body, and was able to propel
itself through the water by undulating a series of flexible by overlapping lobes on each
side of its body. It had a large head, a pair of eyes, and a mouth constructed of 32 overlapping
plates and containing a series of serrated prongs. In front of its mouth were large arms with
barbed-spikes which presumably were used to capture prey.
Because of its strange nature, there had been quite a lot of debate about how to classify
Anomalocaris. Arguments have been made for considering to be
an arthopod (the group containing
insects, crustaceans, millipedes, etc.), or at least closely related
to Arthropods, and today it usually consider to be a lobopod,
a group of segmented worms believed to be related to Arthropods.
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