Topic description and stories

Collinsium ciliosum, a Collins’ monster-type lobopodian from the early Cambrian Xiaoshiba biota of China

Spiky monsters: new species of ‘super-armoured’ worm discovered

29 Jun 2015

A newly-identified species of spike-covered worm with legs, which lived 500 million years ago, was one of the first animals on Earth to develop...

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Left: Hallucigenia sparsa from the Burgess Shale (Royal Ontario Museum 61513) The fossil is 15 mm long. Right: Colour reconstruction of Hallucigenia sparsa.

Newly-discovered ‘ring of teeth’ helps determine what common ancestor of moulting animals looked like

24 Jun 2015

A new analysis of one of the most bizarre-looking fossils ever discovered has definitively sorted its head from its tail, and turned up a previously...

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The Sedgwick Museum bears

Lord Byron and the bears beneath Cambridge

10 Jun 2015

The Cambridge Animal Alphabet series celebrates Cambridge's connections with animals through literature, art, science and society. Here, B is for...

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Odaraia alata, an arthropod resembling a submarine from the middle Cambrian Burgess Shale.

Clues contained in 500 million-year-old brain point to the origin of heads in early animals

07 May 2015

The discovery of a 500 million-year-old fossilised brain has helped identify a point of crucial transformation in early animals, and answered some of...

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Left: Illustration of Ottoia, a prehistoric priapulid, burrowing. Right: Ottoia worm.

Compiling a ‘dentist’s handbook’ for penis worms

06 May 2015

A new study of teeth belonging to a particularly phallic-looking creature has led to the compilation of a prehistoric ‘dentist’s handbook’ which may...

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Cast of the 'Nariokotome boy' (Homo ergaster) skeleton

Earliest humans had diverse range of body types, just as we do today

27 Mar 2015

New research harnessing fragmentary fossils suggests our genus has come in different shapes and sizes since its origins over two million years ago...

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Left: 3D model with the jaws open; the individual bones are colour-coded to show the boundaries between them. Right: Original fossil skull of Acanthostega gunnari

Fossil skull sheds new light on transition from water to land

16 Mar 2015

The first 3D reconstruction of the skull of a 360 million-year-old near-ancestor of land vertebrates has been created by scientists.

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Fossil of Haootia quadriformis

Animals first flex their muscles

27 Aug 2014

A new fossil discovery identifies the earliest evidence for animals with muscles.

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Fossil Hallucigenia sparsa from the Burgess Shale

Misunderstood worm-like fossil finds its place in the Tree of Life

17 Aug 2014

One of the most bizarre-looking fossils ever found - a worm-like creature with legs, spikes and a head difficult to distinguish from its tail – has...

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Palaeontological reconstruction of rangeomorph fronds from the Ediacaran Period (635-541 million years ago) built using computer models of rangeomorph growth and development.

How some of the first animals lived - and died

11 Aug 2014

New three-dimensional reconstructions show how some of the earliest animals on Earth developed, and provide some answers as to why they went extinct...

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Casts of fossils such as this beautiful Fractofusus specimen from Newfoundland are on display

A snapshot of life 560 million years ago

10 Mar 2014

A new display at the Sedgwick Museum focuses on the latest research into a group of fossils that might be the earliest examples of animals ever found...

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Completely enrolled specimen of the olenellid Mummaspis muralensis from the early Cambrian Mural Formation (Jasper National Park, Alberta). This represents the oldest direct evidence of enrolment in the fossil record of polymerid trilobites

Early rollers: scientists pinpoint very first ‘enrolling’ animal

25 Sep 2013

New fossil find reveals that trilobites were able to roll themselves up defensively far earlier than was originally thought

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