How an Ancient Taco-Shaped Sea Creature Captured and Consumed Its Prey

Revisiting Odaraia fossils with newer imaging techniques describe an organism that hunted like a mobil underwater Venus flytrap.

By Paul Smaglik
Jul 24, 2024 6:45 PMJul 24, 2024 6:38 PM
Ancient arthropod, odaraia
Researchers believe odaraia could have swum upside down to gather food among its many spines along its legs. (Credit: Illustrated by Danielle Dufault. Courtesy Royal Ontario Museum)

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Most people know how to eat a fish taco. Not as many understand how an ancient aquatic organism shaped like a taco ate.

Scientists revisited a fossil collection of the 500-million-year-old creature and determined that it used pincer-like mandibles to chew its food, according to a report in Proceedings of the Royal Society B Biological Sciences.

Revisiting an Ancient Fossil

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