Scary alien-like creature is the oldest ancestor of spiders and scorpions ever found and lived 505 million years ago

A Ph.D. student has identified a fossil that dates back hundreds of millions of years and is the ancestor of our creepy crawlies today.

The ancestor of modern scorpions, spiders and horseshoe crabs has been a long-standing mystery among scientists.

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The creatures are all arthropods, meaning they have an exoskeleton, bilateral symmetry, jointed appendages, segmented bodies, and specialized appendages.

More specifically, this group of arthropods belongs to the subphylum category, which means they have pincers used to bite, grasp or inject venom, also known as chelicerae.

Scientists have been unable to identify the ancestor of these creatures, as fossils from 400 to 500 million years ago were a rare find.

The questions began to be answered when Lorenzo Lustri, at the time a doctoral student at the Faculty of Geosciences and Environment at the University of Lausanne, discovered fossils dating back 478 million years, according to EurekAlert!.

They were from the Fezouata shale in Morocco and were found in the early 2000s.

One of the fossils found is called Setapedites Abundantis and measures between 5 and 10 millimeters.

The discovery was able to bridge the huge gap between modern creatures and the Cambrian period, which occurred 505 million years ago.

Scientists have studied the plethora of fossils for years, but little did they know they had the key to an ongoing mystery at their fingertips.

“Initially, we only intended to describe and name this fossil. We had no idea that he would keep so many secrets”, said Lorenzo Lustri about his discoveries, according to the vehicle.

“It was therefore an exciting surprise to realize, after careful observations and analysis, that it also filled an important gap in the evolutionary tree of life.”

Scientists are still observing the fossils and believe that some of their anatomical features may allow a better understanding of the early evolution of the chelicerate, pincer group.

DISCOVERY PROCESS

Upon finding the fossils, researchers were able to study them using an X-ray scanner to reconstruct their anatomy in detail and in 3D.

By doing so, they could compare the fossil to modern creatures and other ancient relatives.

Through phylogenetic analysis, which mathematically reconstructs the family tree, scientists realized that the “coding” of their anatomical characteristics may have solved the mystery.

GIANT RAPTOR

The discovery of the fossil was not the only recent scientific discovery.

In 2020, tracks of a giant raptor, believed to have lived tens of millions of years ago, were found in the Chinese province of Fujian.

“When people think of raptor dinosaurs, they probably think of those from the Jurassic Park movies – aggressive, muscular, human-sized hunters,” said Dr Anthony Romilio, paleontologist at the University of Queensland Dinosaur Laboratory.

“But these footprints were left by a much slimmer and more intelligent group of the Velociraptor family, known as the Troodontids, which emerged at the end of the Jurassic period, around 95 million years ago.

“This raptor was about five meters long with six-foot legs, far exceeding the size of the raptors depicted in Jurassic Park.

“Imagine something like that coming towards you at full speed!”

The bands were two-fingered and described as “distinct” and “unique” shapes.

They provided a clue about the creature called Fujianipus yingliangi.

Also known as troodontids, they were described as bird-like dinosaurs that were predatory carnivores.

Dinosaurs had long legs, large brains, and large eyes with binocular vision.

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