Richard the Wurm

March 13, 2013 8:10 PM

Hahaha, that worm looks like a penis! Oh, wait, that's the headline. Well, for the most part: 'Missing link' connects two weird, wormy sea creatures

Abstract

posted by rosswald (10 comments total)

Ancient Penis-Headed Worm Pushes Fossil Record Back 200 Million Years

...but should have phoned the doctor after four hours.
posted by weapons-grade pandemonium at 8:32 PM on March 13, 2013 [1 favorite]

It looks more like a Hitachi wand to me, but what the hell do I know.
posted by These Birds of a Feather at 9:54 PM on March 13, 2013

That is pretty awesome, but it's no Penis Snake.
posted by kafziel at 10:25 PM on March 13, 2013

Hemichordate? I'll settle for a semaphore date!

i don't even know
posted by cmoj at 10:45 PM on March 13, 2013 [1 favorite]

The second linked article says that the Burgess Shale is 505 million years old, which strikes me as a rather precise number. How did they determine that it's not 504 or 506 million years old?
posted by Harald74 at 12:46 AM on March 14, 2013

How Old is the Burgess Shale?

tl/dr: about 505 million years. Up to 510, maybe.
posted by Segundus at 2:00 AM on March 14, 2013 [1 favorite]

Fossilised forms of a phallus-shaped invertebrate have shed light on a dramatic spurt in Earth's biodiversity that occurred half a billion years ago, a new study says.

I see what you did there.
posted by burnmp3s at 4:57 AM on March 14, 2013 [1 favorite]

burnmp3s: "I see what you did there."

I'll show you hard parts including teeth, scales and bones.
posted by boo_radley at 8:06 AM on March 14, 2013

To be honest, it does look like a penis, but a penis wearing a turtleneck.
posted by Panjandrum at 8:51 AM on March 14, 2013 [1 favorite]

A phallus-shaped worm that lived 505 million years ago is heads above the rest—it’s a “missing link” between two lineages of acorn worms, a new study says.


posted by bq at 9:06 AM on March 14, 2013