Editor, CNBC Indonesia
Tech
Tuesday, 08/08/2023 20:00 WIB
Foto: Desmond Collins/Royal Ontario Museum
Jakarta, CNBC Indonesia – Researchers found one of the oldest animals in the world that is still alive today. Jellyfish are proven to have existed on Earth since 500 million years ago, even earlier than the now extinct dinosaurs.
Researchers at the Royal Ontario Museum in Canada have found the oldest “large” jellyfish fossil. This jellyfish species is Burgessomedusa phasmiformis.
Jellyfish are unique in that 95 percent of their body is water. This physiology makes jellyfish fossils difficult to find. Fortunately, the Burgessomedusa fossil is “trapped” almost perfectly in the rocky mountains of Canada.
The Royal Ontario Museum currently has a collection of around 200 specimens which are the object of research on the anatomy and tentacles of ancient jellyfish.
“Although jellyfish and their relatives are known to be one of the earliest animals to evolve, their fossils are hard to find. The discovery of these fossils removes all doubts,” said Jeo Moysiuk, from the University of Toronto.
The specimens that became the object of research were found in the 1980-1990 era. After going through the analysis process, the researchers proved that the food chain in the Cambrian era, which was between 53.4 million and 538.8 million years ago, was more complex. Previously, the only shrimp-like arthropod named Anomalocaris was believed to be the only predator in the oceans in that era.
Jellyfish are part of a group of animals called Cnidaria. The unique thing about Cnidarians is that their body shape can vary and change. Starting from the vase-shaped body shape and unable to swim, which is called a polyp, then the disc-like body shape, which is called a medusa, which can swim freely.
Jellyfish in the form of polyps have been found for a long time, including in the form of fossils in layers of rock that are 560 million years old. Burgessomedusa is the first fossil jellyfish in the form of a medusa from the same era.
“Burgessomedusa shows that the oceans in the Cambrian era were already complex. These jellyfish could swim efficiently as predators,” said curator of the Royal Ontario Museum, Jean-Bernard Caron.
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