In retrospect of the Jellyfish
The jellyfish is arguably one of the more fascinating sea creatures to watch in the deep blue. What with its long flimsy tentacles propelling it to and fro and its bubble head, the frail-looking creature shows how even appearances can be deceiving, hiding its powerful stings in the weak-looking tentacles.
As we all know the jellyfish have to vertebrae, which is odd to think about, however lots of animals are invertebrates; some cuter-looking than others.
New jellyfish fossil points to skeletal origins
However, the latest news in the archeology world is that scientists in China have found a fossil that suggest jellyfishes once had a skeletal structure, making them vertebrate at that point in time. The find was shared in the Science Advances journal just yesterday.
The find is as interesting as it is enlightening, as the fossil was dated back to the Cambrian period a significant time period for life as we know it. Furthermore, what is else is interesting that some fossils that have been recovered from this historic era is that the fossils of older animal species had skeletal structures whereas the distant relatives and descendants today have none.
The Jellyfish had no arms
Say what? Why did it have no arms? Well that’s because researchers identified this fossil, one of six, as belonging to the early comb jellies species, otherwise known as ctenophores, which have pretty similar tentacles to other jellies, but without the sting (cue sigh of relief for).
Also what’s different about this early jellyfish is that it wasn’t soft-bodied like today
No – instead, these ancient animals had hard plates and small spikes that made them little armored vertebrates and helped them to survive early life on Earth.
Finding fossils is a hard enough job, but finding this kind of fossil is pretty much a needle in the haystack, with you mistaking the needle for hay. What the heck does that mean? It means the fossil is really rare and it was a very lucky find.
As it starts to become more studied and perhaps the search for more fossils start going underway, more will be revealed about the jellyfish that was a vertebrate.
