{"id":19323,"date":"2025-07-24T01:11:18","date_gmt":"2025-07-24T01:11:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/19323\/"},"modified":"2025-07-24T01:11:18","modified_gmt":"2025-07-24T01:11:18","slug":"long-misidentified-fossil-is-first-known-nonmarine-lobopodian-paleontologists-say","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/19323\/","title":{"rendered":"Long-Misidentified Fossil is First Known Nonmarine Lobopodian, Paleontologists Say"},"content":{"rendered":"

First published in 1865 as a caterpillar, nearly fifty years before the discovery of Canada\u2019s Burgess Shale, Palaeocampa anthrax shuffled between classifications \u2014 worm, millipede, and marine polychaete \u2014 until 130 years later, when University of Michigan paleontologist Richard Knecht and his colleagues realized its true identity: Palaeocampa anthrax most likely inhabited a freshwater environment, contesting the view that Paleozoic lobopodians were exclusively marine.<\/p>\n

\"Environmental<\/a><\/p>\n

Environmental reconstruction of the Montceau-les-Mines Lagerst\u00e4tte with Palaeocampa anthrax: a large Palaeocampa anthrax is depicted at the edge of a shallow inland streambed, shadowed by the lush vegetation and mist of a coal forest, flanked by several euthycarcinoids, Sottyxerxes multiplex, and a pair of freshwater xiphosurans, Alanops magnificus; the nearest ocean environment is several hundred km southwest. Image credit: Knecht et al., doi: 10.1038\/s42003-025-08483-0.<\/p>\n

Lobopodians are extinct, soft-bodied creatures that bridge the evolutionary gap between a primitive worm-like ancestor and modern arthropods like insects and crustaceans.<\/p>\n

Known mostly from Cambrian marine deposits such as the Burgess Shale, they include iconic fossils like Hallucigenia and Aysheaia pedunculata discovered in 1911, and were thought to be exclusively marine \u2014 until now.<\/p>\n

\u201cLobopodians were likely a common sight on Paleozoic sea beds, but apart from microscopic tardigrades and terrestrial velvet worms, we thought they were confined to the ocean,\u201d Dr. Knecht said.<\/p>\n

In new research, Dr. Knecht and co-authors analyzed 43 specimens of Palaeocampa anthrax from two Carboniferous Lagerst\u00e4tten \u2014 Mazon Creek in the United States and Montceau-les-Mines in France \u2014 using advanced imaging, including backscatter scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and energy-dispersive spectroscopy.<\/p>\n

They revealed exquisite anatomical features \u2014 most notably, nearly 1,000 bristle-like spines covering the body.<\/p>\n

Using Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), they also detectedchemical residues at the spine tips \u2014 suggesting the spines secreted toxins to deter predators in its swampy habitat.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat amazed me is that fragments of biomacromolecules could be exceptionally preserved or altered to geomacromolecules in fossils,\u201d said Columbia University paleontologist Nanfang Yu.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m thrilled this technique possessed the sensitivity and specificity to differentiate fossilized remains from the rocky substrate.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Palaeocampa<\/a><\/p>\n

Palaeocampa anthrax from Mazon Creek Lagerst\u00e4tte. Image credit: Knecht et al., doi: 10.1038\/s42003-025-08483-0.<\/p>\n

According to the team, Palaeocampa anthrax\u2019s closest relative is Hadranax, a Cambrian lobopodian from Greenland, nearly 200 million years older.<\/p>\n

Both had ten pairs of legs, no claws and were blind; but while Hadranax was unarmored and navigated the deep sea using elongated frontal appendages, Palaeocampa anthrax, at just 4 cm long, bore a dense coat of spines \u2014 arranged above each pair of legs, giving it a fuzzy caterpillar-like appearance \u2014 and inhabited freshwater, possibly amphibious, environments.<\/p>\n

The discovery also resolves the mystery of France\u2019s Montceau-les-Mines fossil site, once considered as marine.<\/p>\n

\u201cMazon Creek is a mix of terrestrial, freshwater, and marine animals,\u201d Dr. Knecht explained.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut, Montceau-les-Mines, where half of the specimens come from, was hundreds of km inland, with no ocean present.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIts reclassification confirms the site\u2019s nonmarine setting, offering a rare glimpse into ancient freshwater ecosystems.\u201d<\/p>\n

This discovery broadens our understanding of lobopodian diversity and raises new evolutionary questions: How many others made the leap from marine to freshwater and could more be hiding, misidentified, in museum drawers?<\/p>\n

\u201cThe conditions required to fossilize soft-bodied creatures like lobopodians are rare,\u201d Dr. Knecht noted.<\/p>\n

\u201cMost of our insights come from Cambrian Lagerst\u00e4tten, but the Carboniferous period \u2014 when Palaeocampa anthrax lived \u2014 offers far fewer such windows, making every new find incredibly valuable.\u201d<\/p>\n

The results<\/a> appear in the journal Communications Biology.<\/p>\n

_____<\/p>\n

R.J. Knecht et al. 2025. Palaeocampa anthrax, an armored freshwater lobopodian with chemical defenses from the Carboniferous. Commun Biol 8, 1080; doi: 10.1038\/s42003-025-08483-0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"First published in 1865 as a caterpillar, nearly fifty years before the discovery of Canada\u2019s Burgess Shale, Palaeocampa…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":19324,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[49,16431,48,16432,3456,16433,637,16434,16435,16436,16437,1671,16438,16439,66,16440,772],"class_list":["post-19323","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-science","tag-ca","tag-cambrian","tag-canada","tag-carboniferous","tag-europe","tag-fossil","tag-france","tag-hadranax","tag-lobopodia","tag-mazon-creek","tag-montceau-les-mines","tag-north-america","tag-palaeocampa","tag-palaeocampa-anthrax","tag-science","tag-toxin","tag-united-states"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19323","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19323"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19323\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19324"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19323"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19323"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19323"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}