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Opabinia is a fossil animal found in Burgess Shale Cambrian fossil deposits. The animal was segmented and had an unmineralized exoskeleton. Total body length ranged from 40 to 70 millimeters. The head carried five stalked eyes that would have given their owner a range of vision of almost 360°, and a long, flexible, hose-like proboscis. At the end of the proboscis were grasping spines; these are theorised to have served as a grab to catch prey, which would then be brought to the mouth, which was located underneath the head, behind the base of the proboscis.
Five eyes?? Weird beyond belief! It's phylum is unknown, as it doesn't fit into any category (except Animalia) in modern-day taxonomy. If you were to come up with a tally of living animals that differed to that extent from anything else, you'd come up empty handed.
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Hey, well spotted! I wondered when this truly bizarre five-eyed Burgess Shale resident would make an appearance here.
There was a time in the Eighties when they seriously wondered whether they needed to add a significant number of phyla to the already existing ones to accommodate all the Burgess fossils; that hubbub has died down somewhat now, but Opabinia still ranks as a 'weird wonder'.
Thanks! National Geographic did an article on the Burgess Shale in like 1997, and made I think one reference to this guy. Thanks to NG, I now know what Anamalocaris, Hallucigenia, Opabinia and Co. are...I love random useless but nonetheless cool knowledge.
Speaking of which, is there a word for random useless knowledge?
And Wiwaxia and Marrella splendens and Sanctacaris (nickname when found in the field: Santa Claws) and all the other Cambrian critters... You need to know the name Chengjiang (if you don't already!) where Chinese equivalent of the Burgess was fairly recently discovered. Here's a page to get you started, if you haven't done so. And then there's the Ediacaran life forms...
Random useless knowledge?
Finrod's brain.
More seriously, I'll have a think about that one.
On random useless knowledge, I'd go for the (plural) noun esoterica, meaning things that are esoteric; Chambers Dict. defines this last as meaning inner; secret; mysterious; taught to a select few; (it then helpfully adds:) opposite to exoteric (philosophy).
It's not a word I've used, but esoteric certainly is.
What do you think, Silth?
Esoteric…heard that before, never quite known what it meant. Esoterica sounds lovely. Thanks for your etymological (correct?) aid.
Don't worry, I wasn't questioning you, except as to the correct spelling of "etymological".
I know you alraedy have a to-read list list that's longer than most, but if you want to really know about the Burgess Shale species, you should consult Wonderful Life by (alas, the late) Steven Jay Gould. Some of the ideas are controversial, but the historical research into Charles Doolittle Walcott - the geologist with the Most Inappropriate Middle Name Ever - is beyond reproach.
I find Gould's style a bit hard going at times; I don't know why. Perhaps because I have Asimov's essay style echoing in my mind whenever I type something that aims to be informative.
It's worth recording that the (younger) scientist Simon Conway Morris (who features in much of the Burgess story) later turned on Gould (fairly savagely) in a way that's hard to understand, given the way that Gould promoted him when he was relatively unknown. That should whet your appetite...
Thanks, I'll check it out. Now whether I'm just saying that or whether I'll actually end up reading it, I don't know…here's hoping for the latter!
Everyone's guilty of it!
I've read that Opabinia may have a known relative. Whilst it is staggeringly different, it is similar in some respects to some species of Anomalocaris. Here's a link to the page I consulted.
The Anomalocaris genus seems to belong with the arthropods; but I think we'll have to wait for more fossil evidence!
Strange!
I just got this message when I tried to view the missing image:
"Sorry, the site you requested has been disabled."
Never seen that before... still, at least you can find trilobites.info. It's chock full of arthropodal goodness.