Typhloesus
| Typhloesus Temporal range:
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|---|---|
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| Fossil specimens | |
Scientific classification 
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| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Superphylum: | Lophotrochozoa |
| Phylum: | Mollusca (?) |
| Genus: | †Typhloesus (Conway Morris, 1990) |
| Species: | †T. wellsi
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| Binomial name | |
| †Typhloesus wellsi (Melton and Scott, 1973)
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Typhloesus wellsi is an extinct species of enigmatic bilaterian animals from the Bear Gulch Limestone. It was once thought to be the first body fossil of a conodont, based on what turned out to be its gut contents; it is now thought to exhibit a radula, which would make it a mollusc,[1] although different types of animal have independently evolved radula-like features. Mark Purnell, of the Centre for Palaeobiology at the University of Leicester, said that it was not definitively known "what this weird thing is".[2]
Description
It has a fusiform (spindle-shaped) body, with a maximum length of 90 mm. At the posterior or backside of the animal is a caudal fin, which was supported by two sets of orthogonal fin rays. The exterior lacks any other organs. The internal anatomy consists of a foregut and a midgut. The gut lacks a midsection and an anus. Beneath the midgut is a disc shaped organ, tentatively called a ferrodiscus; the purpose of this organ is unknown, however it has a high concentration of iron.[3]
Paleoecology
It might have been both a predator and a scavenger, as its fossils sometimes contains conodont teeth and worm teeth located in the midgut of the animal.[1]
See also
References
- ^ a b Conway Morris, Simon; Caron, Jean-Bernard (2022). "A possible home for a bizarre Carboniferous animal: Is Typhloesus a pelagic gastropod?". Biology Letters. 18 (9). doi:10.1098/rsbl.2022.0179.
- ^ Davis, Nicola (21 September 2022). "'Alien goldfish' may have been unique mollusc, say scientists". The Guardian.
- ^ Conway Morris, Simon (1990-04-12). "Typhloesus wellsi (Melton and Scott, 1973), a bizarre metazoan from the Carboniferous of Montana, U. S. A". Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. B, Biological Sciences. 327 (1242): 595–624. Bibcode:1990RSPTB.327..595M. doi:10.1098/rstb.1990.0102.
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