News Paleontology

This spiky fossil shows what early mollusks looked like

It and 17 fossils from more than 500 million years ago help piece together an evolutionary gap

a fossil on a rock shows a oval-shaped creature with spikes all over its body

When viewed from above, spines covering the body of a fossilized mollusk dubbed Shishania aculeata make the creature look like a prickly fruit. The newly described fossil shows what early mollusks looks like more than 500 million years ago.

G. Zhang, L. Parry

By Erin Garcia de Jesús

An animal that could be mistaken for a spiky fruit is giving scientists a peek into what mollusks looked like around 500 million years ago.