Ancient, Balloon-Shaped Animal Reveals What Life was like in Earth's Seas

It turns out that a rare, balloon-shaped fossil may shed a bit of light on Earth's ancient seas. The 520 million-year-old fossil may reveal a bit more about what life was like in the early history of our planet.

The fossil itself is shaped a bit like a "squashed bird's nest." It's likely a chancelloriid, which is a group of bizarre, balloon-shaped animals with an outer skeleton of defensive spines. The animal was most likely flattened during the fossilization process to give it its current appearance.

The new species is now named Nidelric pugio and was found as part of a group of fossils that were discovered in southern China. These rocks revealed a wide range of animals preserved with traces of their soft anatomy, including legs, eyes, guts and even brains. The fossils contained animals that could be related to modern forms, including distant relatives of arthropods, such as crabs and lobsters, and a wide variety of worms.

Yet there were a few fossils that didn't seem to "fit," and among these were the chancelloriids. These fossils, in particular, tell researchers a bit about what life was present in Earth's ancient seas.

"We usually only get the broken-up remains of ancient animal skeletons," said Tom Hearing, one of the researchers, in a news release. "With this specimen we can see how all the different parts of the skeleton stuck together. It tells us much about how early animals functioned, how they might have interacted with other animals, and how they might have protected themselves from predators."

The findings are published in the journal Scientific Reports.

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