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The Cambrian menstruum ( 543 million to 490 million years ago ) brought the first great explosion of biodiversity toEarth , with the ancestors of practically all modern animate being first appear . One of the most fear among them was the penis worm .
Technically known as priapulids — nominate for Priapus , the well - endowed Grecian divinity of male private parts — penis insect , as they ’re unremarkably known , are a partitioning of marine worm that have survived in the existence ’s oceans for 500 million years . Their mod descendants subsist mostly unobserved in muddy tunnel deep underwater , occasionally freaking out fisherman with their floppy , genus Phallus - shaped bodies . But fogey dating back to the earlyCambrianshow that penis worms were once a scourge of the ancient seas , wide mete out around the world and in willpower of extendable , fang - line mouths that could make a collation out of the poor marine creature that crossed them .
Illustration of a Cambrian penis worm inhabiting a hyolith shell.
But , fearsome as they were , penis worm themselves were not without fearfulness . In a young study publish Nov. 7 in the journalCurrent Biology , research worker strike four priapulid fossils that were draw close into the cone - shaped shells of hyoliths , a prospicient - out group of marine animals .
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Because all of the louse were determine in the same character of scale , and in roughly the same position , it ’s potential that the worms had appropriate the shells as their homes , just as modern hermit crabs do , the researchers say .
One of the fossils showing a penis worm chilling in the shell of a dead hyolith.
If that ’s the example , then it would seem that penis worm invented the " hermit " life style hundreds of millions of year before the crustacean that made it famous .
" The only account that made sense was that these shells were their homes — something that came as a real surprise , " study carbon monoxide - generator Martin Smith , an associate prof of palaeontology at Durham University in England , said in a program line via email .
The squad discover the four recluse penis fossils in the assembling of the Guanshan dodo deposit , from southernChina . These fossil deposits , dating to the early Cambrian ( about 525 million years ago ) are famous for preserve not just hard structures such as teeth and shells , but also gentle tissue paper — like the bodies of priapulids — which are much rarer to find in the fossil record .
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In each shell , the insect ’s bottom sits squished into the bottom of the cone , while the worm ’s head and mouth dangle out over the side — sort of like a thaw whirl of soft - serve ice cream . According to the research worker , the dodo realm contained dozens of other empty shells , but no other free - living priapulids , paint a picture the connection between the two was no simple accident . Furthermore , each insect fit snugly in its sheath , suggesting the fauna choose their shell for permanent protective covering from Cambrian predator , rather than as irregular resort .
This character of " hermiting " doings has never been look in priapulids before , nor in any species before theMesozoic era(250 million to 65 million year ago ) , the researchers wrote . For Smith , it ’s " idea - boggling " that this complex behavior could have emerge so soon after the not bad burst of biodiversity known as the Cambrian detonation , more than 500 million years ago . In the harsh world of the other ocean , it seems even fearsome member worms had to get creative .
Originally published on Live Science .
