Paleontologists from National Taiwan University believe that the 6.5-foot-long burrow was once the habitat of a worm-like predator that would have floated from the sea floor to ambush marine creatures and pull them alive to their lair.

Experts working in northeastern Taiwan have reconstructed large L-shaped burrows dating back up to 23 million years from sea floor layers using archaeological excavations – geological features, such as track markings, burrows and plant root hollows in the rocks, that experts use to extract Conclusions about the behavior of ancient creatures.

Using 319 samples, experts reconstruct the fossil of A. Cache – Dubbed The Beautiful Pennichnus! They are 6.5 feet long and about an inch in diameter, and morphological evidence indicates that the tunnels were home to giant marine worms, such as the modern bobbit.

The bobbit worm, or sand striker (Eunice aphroditois), is a bristly-haired waterworm 4 inches to 10 feet long that lives in burrows it creates at the ocean floor. The Bobbitt worm takes its name from Lorena and John Wayne Bobbitt The case where Lorena cut the penis of her husband John Wayne with a kitchen knife.

Mainly living in the Pacific Ocean, bobti worms hide in long, narrow burrows on the sea floor and push upwards to grab unwanted fish, large slugs and other worms, before they are pulled, while still alive, into their dens.

In the study published in the journal Scientific Reports, The report’s authors note that the retreat of an ancient worm and its prey in sediments may have caused “feather-like” structures preserved in Pennichnus shapes.
Clockwise from top left: top of the Pinnatus terrier;  Bobbitt worm (image via Chotinon Mora);  Bobbitt worm terrier.  Diagrammatic view of the top of a Pennichnus terrier;  Vertical section of the lower part of the Pinnatus terrier.

They identified a high concentration of iron at the top of the burrow, and believed the worm could secrete mucus to reinforce the burrow wall.

READ  과학자들은 340광년 떨어진 다른 태양계 행성의 대기를 측정합니다.

“We hypothesize that about 20 million years ago, on the southeastern frontier of the Eurasian continent, ancient Bobbitt worms colonized the sea floor waiting in ambush for a passing meal,” the report’s authors wrote.

“When the prey approached a worm, it exploded from its burrow, grabbing the prey and dragging it down into the sediments. Below the sea floor, the prey stumbled desperate to flee, causing further turbulence of sediments around the burrow hole,” they described.

답글 남기기

이메일 주소는 공개되지 않습니다. 필수 필드는 *로 표시됩니다

You May Also Like

SpaceX 로켓은 세계 최초의 민간인 승무원을 궤도로 수송 | 우주

세계 최초의 “아마추어 우주비행사” 승무원이 이번 주말 지구로 귀환하기 전에 궤도로 데려갈…

3월 보름달: 웜문을 볼 수 있는 시기

CNN의 Wonder Theory 과학 뉴스레터에 가입하세요. 놀라운 발견, 과학적 발전 등에 대한…

새로운 웹 이미지를 보는 방법

과학과 탐험 2022년 7월 5일 6099 의견 29 좋아요 7월 12일 화요일…

SpaceX, Starlink 위성을 운반하는 Falcon 9 로켓 발사

SpaceX는 트위터에서 Falcon 9가 오전 6시에 플로리다에있는 NASA의 케네디 우주 센터에있는 Launch…