The Royal Ontario Museum (ROM), which led the examination of the fossils, has named the ancient species Burgessomedusa phasmiformis.
Finding fossil remnants of delicate jellyfish, which are almost 95 percent water, is extremely rare – and on top of that, one that is millions of years old.fossils were discovered in remarkably good condition at the Burgess Shale location.food chain was significantly more intricate than previously assumed. It was thought that during the Cambrian age, the predation was confined to huge swimming arthropods such as Anomalocaris. This new study, however, alters this understanding.
“Finding such incredibly delicate animals preserved in rock layers on top of these mountains is such a wonderous discovery. Burgessomedusa adds to the complexity of Cambrian food webs, and like Anomalocaris which lived in the same environment, these jellyfish were efficient swimming predators,” said Jean-Bernard Caron, ROM’s Richard Ivey curator of invertebrate paleontology.
“This adds yet another remarkable lineage of animals that the Burgess Shale has preserved chronicling the evolution of life on Earth.”
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