After 25 years of research, a 444-million-year-old inside-out fossil has finally been named. The fossil, which researchers at the University of Leicester have identified as a new species of multisegmented fossil, has been named Keurbos susanae, or “Sue” for short, after the lead researcher’s mom.
And while its insides seem to have been well-preserved, researchers are still debating what this organism may have been. The researchers published their findings in the journal Palaeontology.
“‘Sue’ is an inside-out, legless, headless wonder. Remarkably, her insides are a mineralised time capsule: muscles, sinews, tendons, and even guts all preserved in unimaginable detail. And yet her durable carapace, legs, and head are missing – lost to decay over 440 million years ago,” Gabbott said in a press release. “We are now sure she was a primitive marine arthropod, but her precise evolutionary relationships remain frustratingly elusive.”
