{"id":18206,"date":"2022-10-11T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-10-10T22:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/?post_type=purple_issue&p=18206"},"modified":"2022-11-02T12:51:05","modified_gmt":"2022-11-02T11:51:05","slug":"natures-weirdest-creatures","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/2022\/10\/11\/natures-weirdest-creatures\/","title":{"rendered":"Nature\u2019s weirdest creatures"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
NATURE\u2019S WEIRDEST CREATURES\u2026<\/span><\/h5>\n\n

Hallucigenia<\/h2>\n\n
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When scientists first studied the fossilised remains of this strange, spiky, worm-like creature, they couldn\u2019t tell its \u2018up\u2019 from its \u2018down\u2019, or its front from its back. Named for its \u2018bizarre and dream-like\u2019 appearance, hallucigenia was a finger-sized ocean dweller that lived during the Cambrian Period around 508 million years ago. It belonged to a group called the panarthropods, which later gave rise to velvet worms, water bears and arthropods. <\/p>\n\n

\"Hallucigenia\"
A 15mm fossil of a Hallucigenia found in the Burgess Shale in the Canadian Rocky Mountains<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n

In 1977, British palaeontologist Simon Conway Morris determined that it had seven pairs of stilt-like legs sticking down, and seven pairs of mouth-tipped tentacles pointing up. Then more specimens were analysed, and this interpretation was turned upside down\u2026 literally. Scientists realised that the \u2018tentacles\u2019 were, in fact, claw-tipped legs that pointed down, and the \u2018legs\u2019 were actually pointy spines that protruded upwards.<\/span><\/p>\n\n

Hallucigenia was now the right way up, but no one knew which end was the head. Then in the mid-2000s, modern microscopy methods were applied, and hey presto, the longer of the two \u2018sticky-out bits\u2019 was found to contain, not just eyes, but a mouth too. Behind the head, three hitherto unknown pairs of appendages were discovered, and the legs were shown to be jointless. Hallucigenia, it\u2019s thought, may have walked by altering the pressure of the fluid inside its legs, much like a modern-day starfish. <\/span>HP<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n