Washington
Researchers on Wednesday described fossilized remains unearthed in China showing in fine detail the brain structures of a bizarre group of sea creatures that were the top predators more than half a billion years ago.
The fossils show an animal called Lyrarapax unguispinus, which lived during the Cambrian Period, a pivotal juncture in the history of life on Earth when many major animal groups first appeared. It was a member of a group known as anomalocaridids — primitive relatives of arthropods, which include crustaceans, insects and spiders — that hunted prey with a pair of clawlike grasping appendages in front of the eyes.
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