A new species of bristle worm has been found at the 508-million-year-old Marble Canyon site in sa国际传媒鈥檚 Kootenay National Park.
The worm, found by researchers from the Royal Ontario Museum and the University of Toronto, is called Kootenayscolex barbarensis.
鈥淚t鈥檚 a totally new species to science,鈥� says Karma Nanglu, a PhD candidate in the department of ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of Toronto. 鈥淚t鈥檚 really small and so it鈥檚 a lot smaller than the two best known [bristle worms] from the Burgess Shale.
鈥淚t鈥檚 about two-and-a-half centimetres in total length.鈥�
The fossil, which must be viewed through a microscope, is one of the best preserved fossil species they鈥檝e found in the area.
It鈥檚 helping scientists better understand annelids, a group of animals that includes present-day leeches and earthworms. The early evolutionary history of annelids, in particular the origin of their heads, has a relatively poor fossil record.
Nanglu said Kootenayscolex barbarensis is unlike any other bristle worm that鈥檚 been studied due to its more complex head.
鈥淧reviously, all of the Burgess Shale [bristle worms] were thought to have a relatively simple head,鈥� he said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 pretty much similar to the pattern that we would expect if you look at the modern forms and try to trace back what their early ancestor might have looked like.
鈥淭his [bristle worm] is a little bit different.鈥�
The researchers found sediment in the gut that suggests that the worms played an important role by recycling organic material back to other animals that preyed on them 鈥� similar to their present-day relatives.
The research was published in the journal Current Biology.
The Marble Canyon fossil site, home to at least a dozen new species, was stumbled upon by researchers in 2012 in Kootenay National Park as they worked at the nearby Stanley Glacier site.
It鈥檚 believed the area and its fossils will further the understanding of animal life during the Cambrian Period, when most of the major groups of animals appear on the fossil record.
The site is about 40 kilometres south of the original Burgess Shale in Yoho National Park, discovered more than 100 years ago.
