Overview

• Paleontologists at the Manitoba Museum and Royal Ontario Museum formally described Mosura fentoni, a 506-million-year-old radiodont, in the journal Royal Society Open Science.
• Mosura features a unique 16-segment, gill-lined abdomen, representing evolutionary convergence with modern arthropods like insects and crabs.
• Exceptional fossil preservation includes internal anatomy such as nervous, circulatory, and digestive systems, offering rare insights into Cambrian biology.
• A total of 61 Mosura specimens were collected between 1975 and 2022, primarily from the Raymond Quarry in Yoho National Park, British Columbia.
• Nicknamed the 'sea-moth' for its broad swimming flaps, Mosura highlights the diversity and adaptability of early arthropods during the Cambrian explosion.