Typhloesus Temporal range:
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Fossil specimens | |
Scientific classification | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Superphylum: | Lophotrochozoa |
Phylum: | Mollusca (?) |
Genus: | †
Typhloesus (Conway Morris, 1990) |
Species: | †T. wellsi
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Binomial name | |
†Typhloesus wellsi (Melton and Scott, 1973)
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Typhloesus wellsi is an extinct species of enigmatic bilaterian animals from the Bear Gulch Limestone. It was once thought to be the first body fossil of a conodont, based on what turned out to be its gut contents; it is now thought to exhibit a radula, which would make it a mollusc, [1] although different types of animal have independently evolved radula-like features. Mark Purnell, of the Centre for Palaeobiology at the University of Leicester, said that it was not definitively known "what this weird thing is". [2]
Typhloesus was first described back in 1973 from Carboniferous rocks in Montana. [3] The animal was then jokingly referred to as the ‘alien goldfish’ by subsequent studies. [1] Because of its highly enigmatic nature, this organism was only mentioned briefly in several papers. [1] It was then thought to have been the first known body fossil of a conodont, which are a primitive group of jawless agnathan fish distantly related to lampreys and hagfish. [4] This was based on the presence of "conodont elements", which are the small comb-like teeth of those animals. The teeth however were actually located in the gut contents of the Typhloesus, meaning that while it wasn't a conodont, they were a part of its diet. [1] The animals taxonomy would be shrouded in mystery for over 30 years until in September 2022, when a new paper published revealed several potential mollusk-like features of the animal. [1]
It has a fusiform (spindle-shaped) body, with a maximum length of 90 mm. At the posterior or backside of the animal is a caudal fin, which was supported by two sets of orthogonal fin rays. The exterior lacks any other organs. The internal anatomy consists of a foregut and a midgut. The gut lacks a midsection and an anus. Beneath the midgut is a disc shaped organ, tentatively called a ferrodiscus; the purpose of this organ is unknown, however it has a high concentration of iron. [3]
It might have been both a predator and a scavenger, as its fossils sometimes contains conodont teeth and worm teeth located in the midgut of the animal. [1]
Tullimonstrum, another enigmatic animal from the upper Carboniferous of Illinois.