A scan of the Youti yuanshi larva fossil. (Image credit: Yang Jie/Zhang Xiguang)
LiveScience has a story about an amazingly preserved Cambrian larva. A fossilized arthropod from the Yu'anshan rock formation in the Yunnan Province of China reveals critical details of its brain and circulatory system, including traces of nerves serving the larva's legs and eyes. This specimen is important as it gives clues to the evolution of the largest animal group, which includes modern arthropods like insects, spiders and crabs. The description of this amazing fossil were published in the journal Nature.
"When I used to daydream about the one fossil I'd most like to discover, I'd always be thinking of an arthropod larva, because developmental data are just so central to understanding their evolution," study lead author Martin Smith, an associate professor in paleontology at Durham University in the U.K., said in a statement. "But larvae are so tiny and fragile, the chances of finding one fossilised are practically zero — or so I thought!"
A team of researchers recovered the fossil from the Yu'anshan rock formation in the Yunnan Province of China. They scanned the fossil with X-rays to create virtual 3D images of its internal structures. The images revealed a brain and primitive circulatory system, including traces of nerves serving the larva's simple legs and eyes, according to the study.
"I already knew that this simple worm-like fossil was something special, but when I saw the amazing structures preserved under its skin, my jaw just dropped — how could these intricate features have avoided decay and still be here to see half a billion years later?" Smith said.
