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'Edward Scissorhands'-like creature named after Johnny Depp
It could be more than 500 million years late, but this fossilized creature with scissor-like claws is getting the movie-star treatment.
The extinct creature, dating back some 505 million years, was named Kooteninchela deppi after the hero in the movie "Edward Scissorhands" and for Johnny Depp, who portrayed the titular character.
"When I first saw the pair of isolated claws in the fossil records of this species I could not help but think of Edward Scissorhands. Even the genus name, Kootenichela, includes the reference to this film as 'chela' is Latin for claws or scissors. In truth, I am also a bit of a Depp fan and so what better way to honour the man than to immortalise him as an ancient creature that once roamed the sea?" said researcher David Legg, according to a report on Science Daily.
Legg was working on his PhD in the Department of Earth Science and Engineering at Imperial College London.
The research was published in the Journal of Palaeontology 2 May 2013.
Ancestor to lobsters and scorpions
Ancestor to lobsters and scorpions
Kootenichela deppi is a distant ancestor of lobsters and scorpions. Edward Scissorhands is a movie about an artificial man named Edward who has scissors for hands.
Legg said the creature appears to be among "great-appendage" arthropods, which may be related to arthropods such as spiders, scorpions, centipedes, millipedes, insects and crabs.
"Just imagine it: the prawns covered in mayonnaise in your sandwich, the spider climbing up your wall and even the fly that has been banging into your window and annoyingly flying into your face are all descendants of Kooteninchela deppi," he said.
He added current estimates indicate that there are more than one million known insects and potentially 10 million more not yet categorized, meaning Kooteninchela Deppi "has a huge family tree."
Researchers are using the extinct creature to piece together more information about life on Earth during the Cambrian period, when nearly all modern animal types emerged.
The creature was found to have lived in shallow seas, similar to modern coastal environments, off the cost of British Columbia in Canada.
As the sea temperature would have been much hotter at the time, Kooteninchela deppi would likely have lived in a similar environment consisting of sponges.
Hunter-scavenger
Legg said Kooteninchela deppi could have been a hunter or scavenger, with its Scissorhands-like claws and elongated spines capturing prey or feeling its way through the sea floor.
Researchers believe Kooteninchela deppi was about 4 cm long with an elongated trunk for a body and millipede-like legs.
It had large eyes with many lenses, similar to the compound eyes of a fly - with the eyes atop movable stalks to search for food.
Future research
Legg intends to continue his research and study fossilized creatures from the Ordovician, the geological period that saw the largest increase in diversity of species on Earth.
He hopes to understand why this happened, to learn more about the current diversity of species on Earth. — TJD, GMA News
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