"Ophiocistioids! Weird Mystery Fossils from the Paleozoic!"
A fossil in dating back to the Paleozoic Era was found. The name, comes from the Greek words, ophis ("snake") and kiste ("box"). The first fossil of this sort was found back in 1889. By using homologous structures in modern animals, it has been deduced that this "snake box" is a descendent of modern day sea cucumbers and sea urchins. However, there are some differences in the Ophiocistioids and the sea urchins of today. The animals have a structure called a goniodonts which is used to shear off food like a saw. These structures operate sideways, unlike a sea urchin. Despite their relation to sea cucumbers and sea urchins, these animals represent turtles in their armored body. This resemblance may have been because of convergent evolution, which means that the two species were put under the same evolutionary stress and evolved to look similar.
This is related to what we are learning in biology now because it has to do with evolution, the very subject we happen to be studying now (what a coincidence).
Article Published: August 7, 2012
URL: http://echinoblog.blogspot.com/2012/08/ophiocistioids-weird-mystery-fossils.html
Anuradha Saini
This is related to what we are learning in biology now because it has to do with evolution, the very subject we happen to be studying now (what a coincidence).
Article Published: August 7, 2012
URL: http://echinoblog.blogspot.com/2012/08/ophiocistioids-weird-mystery-fossils.html
Anuradha Saini
Do you know if this was a land or water organism?
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