Image of the Day: Velvet Worm

Researchers have recently identified a many-legged invertebrate from the Silurian period.

Sukanya Charuchandra
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Researchers have identified a new species in the 430-million-year-old Silurian Lagerstätte, a sedimentary deposit rich in fossils, in Herefordshire, UK, according to a study published August 8 in Royal Society Open Science. They classified the fossilized invertebrate, belonging to the group Panarthropoda, into a new genus and named it Thanahita distos. The creature has nine pairs of appendages, with some of those arising in the trunk of the organism being singly or doubly clawed. T. distos enters the velvet worm phylum, making it the first fossil of its kind to be dated to Silurian times.

D.J. Siveter et al., “A three-dimensionally preserved lobopodian from the Herefordshire (Silurian) Lagerstätte, UK,” Royal Society Open Science, doi:10.1098/rsos.172101, 2018.

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Meet the Author

  • Sukanya Charuchandra

    Sukanya Charuchandra

    Originally from Mumbai, Sukanya Charuchandra is a freelance science writer based out of wherever her travels take her. She holds master’s degrees in Science Journalism and Biotechnology. You can read her work at sukanyacharuchandra.com.

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