The Briefing Room
General Category => Science, Technology and Knowledge => Topic started by: Sanguine on August 15, 2019, 06:57:33 pm
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(https://hips.hearstapps.com/hmg-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/images/screen-shot-2019-07-31-at-12-57-18-pm-1564592267.png?resize=980:*)
Cambroraster falcatus was an ancient, primitive arthropod that dominated the ocean approximately 506 million years ago during the Cambrian period. The creature's name was inspired, in part, by Star Wars' Millennium Falcon due to its similar resemblance of the fictional spacecraft (sort of).
C. falcatus, which was roughly the size of a human hand when fully grown though this fossil was nearly a foot long, also bore a striking resemblance to the modern horseshoe crab, per a study published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences.
The anatomy of the apex predator featured a carapace that covered its head, spinous processes, and eight pairs of lateral flaps that covered its trunk. The mouth was cone-shaped with curved, hooked spines around the entire orifice leading the study authors to believe that C. falcatus fed by sifting through sediment in the ocean....
https://www.popularmechanics.com/science/a28566578/oceanic-predator-millennium-falcon/ (https://www.popularmechanics.com/science/a28566578/oceanic-predator-millennium-falcon/)
Cool looking little critter.