Ancient biological trilobites.

With "rabbit ears", a new member of the Cambrian trilobite family

Trilobites are the most representative ancient animals that appeared in the early Cambrian period, 520 million years ago, and are a type of arthropod.

They were the dominant species in the Cambrian period, which some scientists call "the age of trilobites", and trilobites reached their highest taxonomic diversity in the Cambrian period. As one of the "three major schools" of Cambrian trilobites, the Spirochetes, the most prolific trilobite group in the middle Cambrian, are also known to be "conservative" - because of their It is also known as a "conservative" group - one that has troubled many trilobite scholars because of its similar morphology. The head was more "conservative" in the evolution of trilobites than the tail, so examples of head specialization in early and mid-Cambrian spirochetes are extremely rare.

But recently, the Cambrian explosion research team at the Nanjing Institute of Geology and Paleontology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, has systematically studied a group of trilobites with "rabbit ears" from the Middle Cambrian Mantis Formation of the North China Plateau, and this new genus has been named "ear-shaped" because of its unusual head profile. Phantasms Mauritius.

"Traditionally, trilobites have a semicircular head, while we found some strange trilobite heads this time that looks like an elongated 'M-shape'." Sun Fixings, a post-90s member of the research team, told the reporter that the Cetacean have a narrow head, the length of which is nearly half of the total length of the dorsal shell; the anterior saddle area is exaggeratedly extended forward, and their is an obvious notch in the middle, making the anterior part of the cranium resemble a pair of "rabbit ears"; due to the special cranial morphology, the movable cheeks are also specialized into a lateral edge The movable cheeks are also specialized into a flat machete shape on the lateral edges due to the special cranial morphology.

These features, together with the special ocular ridge and head saddle, make the Cetacean distinctly different from any other trilobite genus of the same period, making it another new member of the Cambrian trilobite family and a rare head specialization taxon in the Protrusile family; notably, this new species also provides a unique example of a head specialization in the Middle Cambrian trilobites, which not only differs from other trilobites of the same period but also It is noteworthy that this new species also provides a unique example of a head specialization in mid-Cambrian trilobites, which not only differs from other trilobites of the same period but also has not been repeated throughout trilobite evolutionary history. This suggests that, in addition to the morphological specialization types that were widespread in the post-Cambrian period, other different adaptive specialization types may have evolved in Cambrian trilobites.

Why name it "Farinaceous"? It's a science student's romance

When it comes to naming, Sun Fixings told the reporter that the naming of paleontology should meet the following requirements: firstly, no renaming is allowed, and secondly, as much information about the species as possible should be provided so that people can have more knowledge about the species after seeing the name. For example, the trilobite "crown worm", is named because its head has a ring of spines, as wearing a crown.

Traditional naming is usually done with the name of the place or in tribute to the collector of the fossil. However, another use of naming is to facilitate dissemination. So, many researchers now make the naming of species a little more interesting. "The word Fantasize itself has a meaning with fantasy, and the trilobite we found this time is very different from the specialization we previously imagined that trilobites in the middle Cambrian should have, beyond imagination and unique in appearance, which is in line with the lexical meaning of the word think, and also happens to be the same as the name of Zhou's album, a double entente." Sun Fixings told reporters that they hope they "buried" this "egg", can make young people pay more attention to the distant paleontology section.