Paleontologists found a cache of well-preserved fossils showcasing this three-eyed predator.
What had spiny claws protruding from its mouth, sported a body shaped like a toilet brush and looked as though it slithered off the cover of a sci-fi novel? An ocean predator from the Cambrian period known as Stanleycaris hirpex. Newfound fossils of the bizarre creature are exceptionally complete, preserving the brain, the nervous system and a third eye.
"What makes this find so remarkable is that we have dozens of specimens showing the remains of the brain and other elements of the nervous system, and they're incredibly well preserved and show really fine details," said Joseph Moysiuk, lead author of a study describing the fossils and a University of Toronto doctoral candidate in ecology and evolutionary biology.
The fossils show that the brain of S. hirpex was divided into two segments: the protocerebrum, which connected to its eyes, and the deutocerebrum, which linked to the frontal claws. This brain structure differs from the three-lobe structure of modern arthropods that are distant relatives of S. hirpex, such as insects.
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