#utaurora

5th batch of bug doodle commissions DONE

Utaurora comosa, the second known opabiniid

This fossil from Utah is named after Aurora (Roman goddess of dawn who turned her lover into a cicada – a modern arthropod).

The species name comosa reflects the ‘hairy’ appearance of the dorsal surface, and tail fan composed of many ‘leaves’.

This artwork was done last year but never posted here. I thought it’s appropriate to do it now, since I also just posted Mieridduryn.

Utaurora

Utaurora — вимерлий рід опабініїд, які були химерними стовбуровими членистоногими, тісно спорідненими зі справжніми членистоногими та радіодонтами. Скам’янілості тварини походять з кембрійського періоду штату Юта.

Повний текст на сайті "Вимерлий світ":

Ever since the bizarre anatomy of Opabinia was first recognized in the 1970s, it's been a persistently unique "weird wonder" of the Cambrian period. Over the decades we've figured out that it was an early type of arthropod in an evolutionary position between lobopodians and radiodonts, but this whole time it's still been sitting there alone as the only known representative of a weird stem-lineage with no other known close relatives.

…Until now!

A fossil from the Wheeler Shale in Utah, USA (~507 million years ago) that was originally thought to be a tiny radiodont has been re-studied, and now we finally have another member of the opabiniid family: Utaurora comosa.

Only about 3cm long (1.2"), Utaurora had 15 pairs of swimming flaps along the sides of its body, and a tail region with a 7-part fan and a pair of serrated spines. Hair-like gill blades covered both its back and the bases of its swimming flaps, and although its head region was poorly preserved it probably had an arrangement of 5 eyes and a long flexible claw-tipped proboscis similar to that of Opabinia.

Its discovery extends both the geographical and temporal known range of opabiniids, and suggests that their continued scarcity in other Cambrian fossil sites compared to other soft-bodied arthropods may simply be because they were just incredibly rare animals in those habitats at the time.

———

          She couldn’t help but smile at this. Smile, truly smile. Not the way she had thought she could before. Not with that way her heart-less nature had left her. She no longer felt the echo of an emotion- she had a heart all her own that could enjoy this moment. So she smiled and looked to her companion- friend, really. 

          Despite all he had been through, all that she had put him through inadvertently too, he was still smiling. He was still solid and devoted. And he had apparently pushed for her to come back. She owed something of this existence to him. It was a strange feeling- she was okay with knowing she owed him a great deal.

          His words too pointed at these thoughts. Before, she would have dwelt upon this scenario for a while, drawing herself deeper and deeper into her own complexes. The scenarios she made for herself would manifest on paper, taken from her mind and made into something she could conquer. But now she could feel, could work through it all; and best of all, she had the choice, the will, to do so. Truly she had come a long way from being trapped in a castle.