It was one of Earth’s largest predators up until that point in time.
Scientists yesterday announced the discovery of fossils of a Cambrian-period arthropod named “Titanokorys gainesi” in Kootenay National Park in the Canadian Rockies, within a vast rock formation called the Burgess Shale.
The name “Titanokorys” means “titanic helmet”, and for good reason. This creature’s head carapace represented about two-thirds of its body length of roughly 50cm.
While that may not sound big by modern standards, during the Cambrian period – a pivotal juncture in the history of life on Earth – it was gigantic.
“Most other life forms were smaller than a human thumbnail at that time. By comparison, Titanokorys was longer than an adult human forearm. Yes, it was a giant dude,” said paleontologist Jean-Bernard Caron of the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto, lead author of the study published in the journal “Royal Society Open Science”.
Titanokorys boasted multifaceted eyes, a circular mouth studded with triangular tooth-like structures, two spiny rake-like claws to capture prey, feather-like gills, and a series of flaps on the sides of its body for swimming.
“Overall, the animal looked torpedo-shaped and was relatively flat, an adaptation to living along the sea floor. It could be compared to a giant swimming head since the body was so short – a very bizarre-looking beast indeed,” Caron said.
It lived at a time when most of North America was below tropical seas.
“When the carapace fossils were first discovered, they were so unusual-looking that we weren’t initially sure what sort of animal they belonged to,” said paleontologist and study co-author Joe Moysiuk of the University of Toronto and the Royal Ontario Museum.
“In the field we nicknamed them ‘the mothership,'” Moysiuk added. The nickname “spaceship” was given to a smaller cousin also found in the Burgess Shale, a treasure trove of Cambrian fossils.
Scientists discovered partial fossils of at least a dozen Titanokorys individuals in British Columbia between 2014 and 2018.