* Astronomy

Mysterious sea creature part of a new family

One branch on the tree of life is a bit more crowded today as a team of scientists have revealed what a bizarre group of cone-shaped sea creatures actually are, as reported in Nature.
Hyoliths first appeared 530 million years ago during the early Cambrian period and diversified globally in many marine environments. They are among the first animals to have evolved an exterior shell-like mineralized skeleton, but little has been known about key diagnostic elements of their soft-anatomy until now.
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