The Cambrian period, often celebrated for the “Cambrian explosion”, marked a pivotal phase in the history of life when early arthropods emerged and rapidly diversified. These organisms not only ...

Despite differences in shape and size all insects are characterized by a body organization that includes three units: a head, thorax and abdomen (panels A-B). In contrast all spiders (and other ...

Rudy Lerosey-Aubril A tiny claw in a 500-million-year-old fossil just rewrote the origin story of spiders. After a full da ...

Learn how a fossil from Utah’s Wheeler Formation reveals where early spider relatives lived, how quickly complex animal body ...

One of several Jianfengia fossil specimens: The animal's body plan is extremely simple, consisting of numerous identical segments. However, its head is like that of a more modern crustacean, with eyes ...

Five hundred million years ago, a larva this small swam in the oceans of the Cambrian Period, its tiny form supporting a brain, digestive organs, and nerve cells that would resound through the lineage ...

Palaeontologists are helping resolve the evolution and ecology of Odaraia, a taco-shaped marine animal that lived during the Cambrian period. Fossils reveal Odaraia had mandibles. Palaeontologists are ...

Scientists have uncovered a remarkable fossil from Canada's Burgess Shale, a discovery that reshapes how the evolution of arthropods is understood. This new find, named Mosura fentoni, lived roughly ...

For over a century, the Cambrian arthropod Helmetia expansa remained a mystery. Discovered by paleontologist Charles Doolittle Walcott in 1918, it was initially classified as a crustacean. Despite ...

Paleontologists, aided by more than 60 fossil finds, discovered Mosura fentoni, an intriguing three-eyed predator that roamed in the oceans of Earth more than 500 million years ago. Also referred to ...