It looks odd, but it’s a starfish ancestor Bertrand Lefebvre
A mysterious group of ancient animals may have been the ancestors of starfish, according to a study of newly discovered fossils.
“It’s the first time that soft parts have been found in this group of fossils,” says Bertrand Lefebvre of Claude Bernard University Lyon 1 in France. “It was the only clue to put an end to a very old debate.”
Stylophorans are a group of early complex animals. They appeared in the Cambrian period, which began 541 million years and saw the first explosive flowering of animal diversity,…
