Cracking the hard shells of its prey with a multi-tool head
August 13, 2018 7:31 PM   Subscribe

Half a billion years ago, Habelia optata lived and hunted prey at the bottom of a warm shallow Cambrian sea. Protected by its thick, hard, spiny armor, it walked on five pairs of articulated legs. Only 2 to 3 centimeters long, it detected and grasped smaller less fortunate animals. With its many comparatively large jaws, it cracked through the hard shells of its prey.
How Art Makes Better Science: a short case study of the 2-D and 3-D interpretations by Joanna Liang of one of the many weird creatures of the Burgess Shale. via

The second video in the main link gives a good overview of the process.
posted by Rumple (6 comments total) 22 users marked this as a favorite
 
This is really cool. I still remember reading Wonderful Life, by Stephen Jay Gould and being fascinated by the creatures of the Burgess Shale.
posted by JamesBay at 9:31 PM on August 13, 2018 [3 favorites]


(and some of the reconstructions in his book were incorrect at the time, so each new reconstruction is yet another revelation)
posted by JamesBay at 9:33 PM on August 13, 2018


Welp I didn't need to sleep tonight anyway! 😱
posted by slater at 9:45 PM on August 13, 2018


So much effort put into visualizing large armored marine spiders. I approve!
posted by q*ben at 9:58 PM on August 13, 2018


That's no multi-tool head: it's just a trilobite wearing a horse head mask.
posted by scruss at 1:02 AM on August 14, 2018


I ❤️ DEATHSHRIMP
posted by Artw at 6:46 AM on August 14, 2018 [2 favorites]


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