As if daydream up byJules Vernehimself , a raw creature described only by its fossilized cadaver is add a new perspective to the ordination of the Tree of Life .
What are now rice fields and farmlands in China ’s Yunnan Province , half a billion years ago once made up the seafloor – rest home to mysterious and grotesque creatures like theDaihua sangiongthat impound itself to the seafloor and had 18 feathery , target - enchant tentacles around its mouthpiece . According to enquiry published inCurrent Biology , the animal could be an ancient cousin that set the stage for one of the world ’s most effulgent sea - home creatures : ctenophores .
All living creatures evolved from a single common ancestor , subject author Jakob Vinther differentiate IFLScience , add that studying fossils is an authoritative part of tracing evolutionary story and understanding where modern creature came from – particularly the peculiar ones .
retell dour spot along each tentacle ofD.sangiongresemble how comb jelly combs fossilize , explainedVinther . The fogey also save visible row of cilia that have only previously been found in comb jellies across the Tree of Life .
Not to be confused with jellyfish , comb jelly come from an entirely different phylum and have been the source of contention among evolutionary biologist for more than 150 year . Comb jelly were among the first animals to evolve , and today use a lot of iridescent , bright gloss “ combs ” along their body that are packed with cellular protrusions called cilia , which they use for locomotion .
" We can trace the jellylike comb gelatin back to ancestor with a skeletal system and further back to ancestors that pose on the seafloor [ with ] flower - similar bodies , " Vinther told IFLScience .
The researchers drew their conclusions after note thatD. sangionaresembles another tulip - shaped ocean animal calledDinomischusthat was find at Burgess Shale in Western Canada . Similarly , Dinomiscusswam through the world ’s oceans around 508 million years ago with 18 tentacle and an organic frame . Another fogy known asXianguangiamay have evolved into today ’s comb jelly , rather than sea anemones , suggest the author .
" This shows that they have similarities to the coelenterate , where ocean sea anemone and jellyfish belong , " explicate Vinther .
Under this theory , comb jellies evolved with an organic skeleton . Their namesake comb arrive from their ancestors ’ tentacles that were once attached to the seafloor , save the authors . Their mouths may have then expanded into balloon - mold spheres , while their bodies became small until their tentacle moved from around their mouth to their backside .
This new phyletic analysis pose them alongside sponge as being the babe group of all animals , but not everyone is win over . bionomics and evolutionary biologist Casey Dunn toldLive Sciencethat whileD. sanqiong’sdiscovery is telling , he is “ extremely unbelieving ” of conclusions drawn by the research squad – and others agree .
" This newspaper publisher strikes me as check the webbed feet and visor of a Ornithorhynchus anatinus and saying it must be a duck , ( despite the fact that ) it does n’t vanish like a duck , or quack like a duck , ” Monterey Bay Aquarium life scientist Steven Haddock toldNational Geographic . " To those conversant with modern comb jellies , the aim correspondence with ( these ) fossils is equally notional . "
The author , on the other hand , believe their finding make a warm case for repositioning the comb jelly back alongside corals , sea anemones , and jellyfish .
