Strange Cambrian Creatures

These Cambrian Invertabrates are probably some of the strangest you could imagine (or maybe not) !!

The first is an Opabinia, an arthropod, discvered as a fossil in Canada. It would probably have used its fierce looking proboscis to grasp prey and move them to its mouth. Imagine, five eyes! Luckily only 6.5 cms long.

The second is an Hallucigenia (after several beers you might see this). It had seven pairs of rigid stilt-like legs, and seven pairs of stiff pointed spines on the upper side of its body. It only grew to 2.5 cms long.

The third is Anomalocaris. It was a top predator in the Cambrian Seas. Its size and formidable mouthparts ensured it had sufficient prey. Its main prey were Trilobites. It grew to a metre in length.

Wiwaxia was a mollusc. Its upper body was covered with overlapping rows of protective spines. Its mouth contained two or three rows of rear facing conical teeth. It ate sea algae or bacteria. Wiwaxia grew to from 3 to 5 cms long.

Finally we have Marella, which has only ever been discovered in the Burgess Shale of Canada. The body had 20 segments each with a pair of identical limbs.. This suggests that it was a swimming arthropod, and was a sea bed scavanger. It grew to only 2 cms long.

I hope you share my enthusiasm for these long dead, 500 million years old sea creatures.
They can only cause wonder at their structures.