Long body, feathers and short legs with spikes. Remains of a strange creature found in North America

The remains of a strange, alien-like creature have been found in North America. The unknown creature has spikes, feathers, and a long body with many branches.

Scientists have discovered the fossils of an unexplained marine creature in Canada. According to preliminary findings, it lived on earth more than 500 million years ago.

The creature, which scientists have named a lobopod, was found in Yoho National Park back in 1983, but no one has ever begun to study it. It was lying in the middle of a bed of tulips next to 10,000 other fossils. Researchers from the Royal Ontario Museum say that since then, they have identified more than 50 new species of unknown creatures, one of which was even shaped like a tulip.

However, the strangest of the fossils found is the lobopodia, also called entotyreos sinnaustrus. According to the study, the creature had a body up to 5 cm long and short legs with spikes sticking out from the back, and feather-like processes growing from the front of the body.

The study reports that half of the creature's processes were "long and thin" and the rest were "thicker and conical". The long processes were covered with "very short spines" and had two rows of "very long" and "curved spines in the shape of chevrons, similar to claws."

The fossils of the lobopodia have shown that different parts of its body were designed to perform different functions. The hind limbs probably served to protect it.

This creature may have evolved as a result of the Cambrian explosion, which occurred in the Paleozoic era about 530 million years ago. During this era, there was a significant increase in the area suitable for life on the seabed, so the number of different animals increased.

Scientists emphasize that the Cambrian explosion is one of the most important events in the history of life on our planet, thanks to which animals have become the most prominent part of the planet's marine ecosystems.

What caused the Cambrian explosion is still unknown. But some researchers argue that the increase in oxygen levels allowed for the formation of larger, more complex animals, such as lobopods. After the explosion, animals began to develop eyesight, legs, and predator-prey relationships due to increased competition.

"Animal bodies have changed and diversified. This is an ecological phenomenon, as life responded to changing environmental conditions," summarized Dr. Greg Edgecombe, a researcher at the Natural History Museum in London.

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