Most living ctenophores have a translucent spherical or cylindrical body, frequently showing bright-coloured bioluminescence, vaguely reminiscent of colourful disco mirror balls. (Scientific Reports), Author provided Strange anatomical symmetry Two alternative life reconstructions of the fossil comb jelly Daihuoides jakobvintheri, (A) as a pelagic animal like modern comb jellies, and resembles a jellyfish, and (B) as a benthic animal, like many Cambrian comb jellies, and resembles a sea anemone. Our new fossil, named Daihuoides jakobvintheri, adds substantially to this scant record. In August, two new species of Cambrian comb jellies were also reported from Utah. Since then, records of spectacularly preserved early relatives of comb jellies were described from the 518-million-year-old Chengjiang Biota in southern China, the 505-million-year-old Burgess Shale of British Columbia in Western Canada and other similar deposits. The first comb jelly fossil to be discovered came from the Early Devonian Hunsrück Slate of Germany, deposited some 405 million years ago. Until the early 1980s, comb jellies were unknown from the fossil record. Other environmental parameters also play an important role in the preservation. Fossilization of these soft-bodied animals requires exceptional conditions such as very rapid burial with very fine sediments in an oxygen-poor aquatic environment, which suppresses the activities of decomposing and scavenging organisms. However, their delicate bodies generally lack hard parts, meaning very few fossil ctenophores have been preserved and discovered: only about a dozen species have been found globally.
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