#radiodonta

Cambroraster falcatus was a radiodont that lived during the Cambrian, about 508-505 million years ago, in what is now western Canada. Part of the hurdiid family of radiodonts, it reached sizes of up to 30cm long (~12") – making it one of the largest animals known from the Burgess Shale fossil deposits.

Its distinctively-shaped massive head shield led to it being nicknamed "the spaceship" during collection and study of numerous fossil specimens. This was then referenced in its species name of "falcatus", inspired by its resemblance to the fictional Millennium Falcon from the Star Wars franchise.

Its short frontal appendages bore long curved spiny blades that formed a basket-like structure. Originally these were thought to be used to sift through seafloor sediment, but more recently they've been proposed as filter-feeding structures instead.

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Mosura fentoni sketches.

🦕🦖TEAM FOSSILS FOR TEH WIN!!!! 🦖🦕 I love my dehydrated piss theme <3

Hello again friend! Anomalocaris’s name means “abnormal shrimp” so you calling them shrimp things isn't that far off.  Joseph Frederick Whiteaves identified them in 1892 as something that resembled the abdomen of shrimps and thus named them Anomalocaris.  He only had the front appendage to work with so he had no way of knowing if there was more to this creature or what it would look like in full. Now that we have better fossils we know that Anomalocaris was a radiodont and are not closely related to shrimp.

Example of Anomalocaris’s front appendage [1]

Also did you know Anomalocaris was about 1.25ft long!  For when it lived in the Cambrian period though that would have been ginormous! This is partially why Anomalocaris is considered to be the first apex predator. They where thought to have mainly eaten trilobites off the sea floor but recent studies have found that their mouth pieces would not have been strong enough to break trilobite's hard carapis.  Another study also showed that there was a chance that their front appendages would be damaged when grasping onto a trilobite's hard body.  Anomalocaris instead most likely ate soft body organisms while swimming through a water column.

Artists rendition of what Anomalocaris might look like [2]

Sources bellow

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