1210

Lot 1210: 3 First Multicelled Animal Fossils

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles / Rocks, Fossils & Minerals Start Price:300.00 USD Estimated At:500.00 - 750.00 USD
Lot 1210: 3 First Multicelled Animal Fossils
<b>Fossils and Related</b><hr><b>Rare Collection of Three of the First Multicelled Animals from the Early Cambrian Period from Chengjang, China.</b>
At over 535 million years old, the amazing, soft bodied fossils of Chengjang, China, are the earliest fossils of animal life found in the fossil records. The Cambrian explosion of animals only began 543 million years ago. Before this, all of the ancestors of animals, were microscopic in size. The exotic Chengjong creatures were also small and soft bodied, but remakably well preserved in fine grained limestone. This collection includes one of the first major predators, the shark of the Cambrian seas, Circocosmia, a worm like animal. This large 1.5” predator is beautifully displayed, showing its segmented body as well as its proboscis, which it extended to swallow its prey whole. The second fossil is a small .25” trilobitomorph, Acanthomeridion. Trilobitomorph means it looks something like a trilobite, but what it really was is a mystery. It is well preserved with even its stomach contents visible as a raised, oblong lump behind its head. The last specimen is a .6” long Brachiopod, Lingulella, with its soft shell and even its foot, pedicle, preserved. it looked somewhat like a worm coming out of its shell. The pedicle was used to attach the brachiopod to the sea bottom. This small, but fascinating representation of the first sea animals on earth, would make an excellent display and research grouping. Displayed in a Ryker mount.