Pentastomida - Fossil Record

Fossil Record

Exceptionally preserved, three dimensional and phosphatised fossils from the Upper Cambrian Orsten of Sweden and the Cambrian/Ordovician boundary of Canada have been identified as pentastomids. Four fossil genera have been identified so far: Aengapentastomum, Bockelericambria, Haffnericambria and Heymonsicambria. These fossils suggest that pentastomids evolved very early and raise questions about whether these animals were parasites at this time, and if so, on which hosts. Conodonts have sometimes been mentioned as possible hosts in this context.

Read more about this topic:  Pentastomida

Famous quotes containing the words fossil and/or record:

    The earth is not a mere fragment of dead history, stratum upon stratum like the leaves of a book, to be studied by geologists and antiquaries chiefly, but living poetry like the leaves of a tree, which precede flowers and fruit,—not a fossil earth, but a living earth; compared with whose great central life all animal and vegetable life is merely parasitic.
    Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)

    The case of Andrews is really a very bad one, as appears by the record already before me. Yet before receiving this I had ordered his punishment commuted to imprisonment ... and had so telegraphed. I did this, not on any merit in the case, but because I am trying to evade the butchering business lately.
    Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865)