It’s hard to believe how some creatures can get discovered so many years after they lived/died.
In this case, it’s one of the world’s earliest worms – estimated at existing about 220 million years ago – that apparently crawled around trying not to get stepped on by dinosaurs.
Well, doubtful they could always evade those ancient monsters – not having eyes and all…
But some obviously did, and now we have evidence from an archaeological dig site in Arizona.
The worm, dubbed Funcusvermis by its discoverers, is named after a song called “Funky Worm” from the 1970s dance band the Ohio Players.
Scientists working at the dig said they have so far not found a complete skeleton of Funcusvermis, so they can’t tell exactly how long it was. But they do know it lived at the dawn of the dinosaurs in the early Triassic era.
And they’ve never completely died out, with modern descendants still to be found in south and central America, Africa and southern Asia.
It’s incredible to me that these soft-bodied creatures could leave behind "skeletons" and body images in the rock for such an amazingly long time.
The one picture of Funcusvermis published so far actually looks like a piece of uncooked bacon to the untrained eye -- i.e., mine.
Ummmmm, bacon...to quote Homer Simpson.
But Funcusvermis is not the oldest worm ever discovered.
In 2017, scientists exploring Hudson Bay’s shallows in Canada found fossil evidence of a six-foot-long carnivorous worm. Estimated at 440 million years old – twice as old as Funcus – this giant worm pre-dates all of the dinosaurs.
So how did they know it was carnivorous?
The teeth, man, the teeth!
Funcus also shows evidence of primitive teeth, although they were probably incapable of biting anything bigger than a small insect or another worm.
I’m glad the giant Hudson Bay worms are no longer with us. Imagine encountering a few of those babies while swimming one carefree Summer day.
And here's another interesting fact about very old worms: In 2018, Russian scientists defrosted some prehistoric worms that were frozen in the Arctic permafrost about 40,000 years ago.
After thawing, two of the worms “woke up” from their perma-sleep and actually began moving and eating.
Wow. Bet they were really hungry!
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