Description: NEOVENATOR Possibly the UK's biggest killer dinosaur. It once roamed the areas of Southern England around 120 million years ago, preying on the herds of Iguanodon and also, I would imagine, the numerous long necked sauropods that were around at this time. It is related to the T-Rex busting Carcharodontosaurus. CAMBRIAN KILLER Anomalocaris Name: Meaning - "abnormal shrimp". Its name originates from Joseph Frederick Whiteaves who in 1892 described a detached 'arm', believeing it to resemble a crustacean-like creature due to its similarity to the tail of a lobster or a shrimp. Diet: Predator: feeding off anything that dared to cross it's path - many trilobites exhibit features associated with attacks from these Cambrian Killers. They appear as round or 'w' shaped bite marks. Size: Length - upto 2 m long (A. canadensis). Geological Age: Lower to Middle Cambrian (530 to 500 million years ago). Their fossils have been found in deposiuts from Canada, China, Utah and Australia. Locomotion: They are considered to be ancestral arthropods - they would propel themselves through the water by undulating it's flexible lobes on the sides of its body, just like fins. They would have been very agile and fast predators. Bones: The first fossilized anomalocarid part discovered was a mouth found by Charles Doolittle Walcott who was naturally unaware of it's identity and described it as a type of jellyfish in the genus Peytoia. Walcott then discovered a second anomalocarid fossil - a feeding appendage, but he failed to realize the similarities to Whiteaves' 1892 discovery and instead identified it as feeding appendage or tail of the extinct Sidneyia. The body parts to anomalocarid was discovered separately and classified as a type of sponge and placed in the genus Laggania; a mouth was found with the body, but was interpreted by its discoverer (Simon Conway Morris) as an unrelated Peytoia that had somehow happen to have settled and been preserved along with the Laggania. Later, while cleaning up what he thought was an unrelated specimen, Harry B. Whittington had removed a layer of covering stone to discover a connected arm thought to be a shrimp tail and mouth, thought to be a jellyfish. Whittington linked the two species, but it took several more years for researchers to realize exactly how all the different parts related. Classification: Kingdom Animalia (animals) Stem Group: Arthropoda Class Dinocaridida Order Radiodonta Family Anomalocarididae Genus Anomalocaris (Whiteaves 1892) Species A. Canadensis Other Info: This creature gave palaeontologists a real headache for a long time due to the way it's remains were discovered. Originally several fossilized parts discovered separately (the mouth, feeding appendages and it's tail) and they were thought to belong to three separate creatures. It wasn't until 1985 when this was corrected by Harry Whittington and Derek Briggs, when the true nature of all three parts were fully identified. REPLICA Fossil Information: This is a replica of a feeding appendage of Anamalocaris Canadensis - i.e. the feature that gave anamolocaris it's name. It measures 17 cm long by 8 cm wide (for the matrix block that contains it). It is made of resin and is hand painted (so please expect some variations to the colouration etc.).
Price: 36.99 GBP
Location: Swindon
End Time: 2024-11-30T22:53:56.000Z
Shipping Cost: 8.72 GBP
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Returns Accepted: ReturnsNotAccepted
Shape: Natural
Sub-Type: Dinosaurs/ Reptiles
Type: Fossils
