Chinese and British scientists have solved the mystery of the food-eating nature of Camsoon arthropods

, Chinese and British scientists have made new progress in the study of the World Natural Heritage "Chengjiang Biome". "Natural Index" includes the journal, the Royal Society academic journal "Royal Society B Issue Bioscience Album" published in Yunnan Province, China, the key laboratory of paleontology research Hou Xianguang
This beautiful arthropod, which lived in the Cambron Ocean 520 million years ago, usually has between soybean grains and broad beans in size, consisting of nearly semicircular head armor and long oval tail armor, tail armor side, back edge with thorns, so named "prickly Narroworm". It has complex limbs under the head and tail armor, which is responsible for the function of movement and feeding. In the past, limited to technical means, the fine forms of these appendages buried inside fossil specimens were difficult to study, so people's understanding of the classification location and habits of hedgehogs was very limited. Now, with the help of high-precision X-ray microCT, researchers have been able to observe its body structure at any angle without loss and precision, and use software to perform "virtual anatomy" of its body model, separating the structure of various parts of the body.The results of the
study show that the fossils of the hedgehogs in the Chengjiang biome preserve micron-scale, exquisite soft body details, which are lifelike in terms of sleet and elegant tentacles, triangular mouth plates, stiff hairs of the inner and outer limbs, end claws of the inner limbs and ornaments on the inside of the appendages. There are significant differences in the appendectal morphology of the front and back of the stinging narroworm body, and the appendectal forms of the larvae and larvae are different. Of these differences, the most striking is the structure of the appendix prosthesis (the base of the appendix). The appendages at the back of the larvae' body are smaller and smoother on the inside, while the original limbs on the front of the body are specially designed as "jaw-based" structures with two neatly arranged small protrusions on the inside, which are used to grind smaller, softer food particles, such as algae, organic debris, etc. The jaw base of the insect has several rows of developed thorns, especially in the appendages near the mouth, these prickly structures are very developed, very sharp, they vary in size, misplaced and arranged, can effectively tear up food, such as shelled creatures, other animal limbs and so on.
Based on the differentiation of appendicular morphology, the researchers speculate that, like many modern arthropods, there are significant food-eating differences between the larvae and larvae of the hedgehogs, which occupied different positions in the food chain of the early Cambrill marine ecosystems. This phenomenon, known as "ecological dissent", not only avoids the competition of similar individuals at different stages of development for limited food resources, but also enables the species to use more resources, thus increasing the chances of survival. Differences in the limb morphology and ecological dissographic differences between steres and larvae indicate that ecosystems were highly complex and highly evolved in the oceans more than 500 million years ago. The study's significance lies in the discovery of dense stings on the legs of the Narrowowo, the so-called "jaw base," said the paper's first author, Yan Daji, an associate researcher. It is used to crush food. Judging from this structure, the Narroworm eats meat. Not knowing there was this structure before, many people thought it was mud-eating (mud Barry's organic debris). At the same time, it was also found that adult insects and larvae have different jaw-based structures, according to which it is speculated that larvae eat softer and smaller prey, adult insects on the jaw-base thorns more developed, more stout, eat large, shelled organisms. This division of labor, avoiding infighting, is a very high form of organization.
Researcher, Liu Wei is the author of the thesis newsletter, and Dr. Mei Huiguang is the co-author of the thesis. The research was funded by scientific research projects such as the National Natural Science Foundation of China, the Yunnan Provincial Science and Technology Department Fund, and the Yunnan Paleontical Innovation Team Project.