 A team of paleontologists has discovered a 500-million-year-old sea worm and named it after the sandworms of the popular Dune move and novels. Unlike the giant worms from the 2022 blockbuster starring Timothée Chalamet, this worm found in the Spence Shale Lagerstätte in northern Utah and southern Idaho, is about 10 centimetres long and has a distinctive, blade-like shape. Rhiannon LaVine, the scientist who discovered the new fossil worm bestowed the species with its scientific name: Shaihuludia shurikeni. Shai-Hulud is the indigenous name for the worms on the planet Arrakis in the Dune novels by Frank Herbert, while 'shuriken' is the Japanese word for throwing star, representing the shape of the creature's blade-like bristles. 'I've been involved in describing species before, but this is the first one I've named,' said LaVine. 'It was the first thing that came to mind, because I'm a big ol' nerd and at the time I was getting really excited for the 'Dune' movies.' Like the worm's sci-fi namesake, Shaihuludia shurikeni is a big deal as a new species of Cambrian annelids or worms is uncommon. Rhiannon LaVine, the scientist who discovered the new fossil worm bestowed the species with its scientific name: Shaihuludia shurikeni (Picture: Rhiannon LaVine/University of Kansas) 'Annelids are very rare in the Cambrian of North America, and so far we only knew of a single specimen from the Spence Shale,' said lead author Julien Kimmig, a paleontologist with the State Museum of Natural History in Karlsruhe, Germany. 'The new annelid Shaihuludia shurikeni is especially interesting, as it had some very impressive chaetae, which makes it unique among the Cambrian annelids,' Researchers also found it interesting that most of the soft tissue was preserved as an iron oxide 'blob,' suggesting the animal died and was decomposing for a while before it was fossilised. Sha){kind=link}
NEWS… BUT NOT AS YOU KNOW IT
A team of paleontologists has discovered a 500-million-year-old sea worm and named it after the sandworms of the popular Dune move and novels.
Unlike the giant worms from the 2022 blockbuster starring Timothee Chalamet, this worm found in the Spence Shale Lagerstätte in northern Utah and southern Idaho, is about 10 centimetres long and has a distinctive, blade-like shape.
Rhiannon LaVine, the scientist who discovered the new fossil worm bestowed the species with its scientific name: Shaihuludia shurikeni.
Shai-Hulud is the indigenous name for the worms on the planet Arrakis in the Dune novels by Frank Herbert, while ‘shuriken’ is the Japanese word for throwing star, representing the shape of the creature’s blade-like bristles.