#siberion

[justgoji]

Glubby

[alphynix]

Cambrian Explosion #39: Phylum(?) Lobopodia – The Psychedelic Spectacle

The earliest panarthropods were the lobopodians, small soft-bodied segmented worm-like animals with many pairs of legs, usually tipped with claws, and sometimes elaborate ornamentation on their bodies such as spikes, armor plates, and fleshy bumps.

Since they occupy a basal position among panarthropods it's likely they weren't really a distinct lineage or phylum, and were probably more of an "evolutionary grade" of various weird early forms, with tardigrades, velvet worms, and potentially all other arthropods descending from somewhere among their ranks.

While little is known about their lifestyles they seem to have had a wide range of ecological roles, including predators, grazers, scavengers, and even filter-feeders. They're mostly known  from around the world in the mid-Cambrian, but fossils from over 200 million years later in the late Carboniferous (~310 million years ago) hint that these panarthropods may actually have been successful elements of Paleozoic marine ecosystems for a very long time.

There's a whole iceberg of weirdness and mystery surrounding these animals and I can't possibly do them all justice in only a couple of days. So we'll just have to take a quick look at a few of them before moving on.

———

The most famous lobopodian is, of course, Hallucigenia sparsa.

Discovered in the Canadian Burgess Shale deposits (~508 million years ago), it was initially reconstructed in the 1970s upside-down and back-to-front, depicted as a strange alien-looking creature that walked on stilt-like spikes and had a single row of tentacles along its back – and inspiring its name due to its "bizarre and dream-like quality".

But further discoveries of similar Cambrian lobopodians hinted at its true identity as a relative of velvet worms and other early panarthropods, and in the 1990s closer inspection of the Hallucigenia specimens revealed a second row of the strange "tentacles", confirming they were actually legs.

Up to about 5cm long (2"), it had 7 pairs of slender clawed legs and 7 pairs of long sharply-pointed spines along its back. An elongated head and neck region bore a mouth with a throat ringed with tiny teeth, a pair of simple eyes, and three long thin tendril-like appendages that probably served a sensory or feeding function. A small pair of antennae may also have been present, which currently-unpublished research has suggested could have been a sexually dimorphic feature, more prominent in males.

Further fossils of Hallucigenia sparsa have been found in the older Chinese Chengjiang fossil deposits (~518 million years ago), along with two other closely related species:

Hallucigenia hongmeia was about 3cm long (1.2"), with 8 pairs of legs, each ending in a single long claw, and stubbier, more curved spines. Net-like holes in the surface of its spines suggest it may have had numerous fleshy outgrowths projecting through them, possibly for sensory or camouflage purposes.

Hallucigenia fortis was the smallest of the three, about 1.5cm long (0.6"). It had 8 pairs of legs and curved spines, and seems to have had a more bulbous head than its relatives.

Isolated Hallucigenia-like spines have also been found in Cambrian rocks all around the world, suggesting this type of lobopodian was especially widespread and numerous.

———

Siberion lenaicus was a lobopodian known from the Sinsk biota of Eastern Russia (~513 million years ago).

About 7cm long (2.75"), it appears to occupy a transitional point between the walking worm-like lobopodians and the swimming "gilled lobopodian" dinocaridids. It had a fairly chunky body and spiny limbs, a stubby "tail" region, and what may have been rows of bumpy ornamentation along its back. Large grasping appendages on each side of its head were probably adapted for a predatory lifestyle, and might have provided the anatomical basis for the evolution of the highly specialized "great appendages" of the "gilled lobopodians" and radiodonts.

Two other closely related "siberiid" lobopodians are known from China, but only two specimens of Siberion itself have ever been found. And sadly it's unlikely any more ever will be – the site it originally came from has been completely destroyed by commercial fossil hunters.

———

Nix Illustration | Tumblr | Twitter | Patreon

[flosnix]

happy birthday @sailor-mochi !!

happy birthday to true royalty ! ! ! <3 we all met through FFXV & the unknown bond between the characters.. so ofc i had to bring back this gem !  to you, thanks for always being the sweetest person to grace the earth & our smol fam. you are a true gift !                 -me & @siberion 

[elliejoys]

for gif-maker meme: 1, 14, & 34!

1. answered here

14. How long does it usually take you to make a set?

I recently switched from gimp to photoshop on some of my gifsets, but if I use gimp (which i’ve been using until recently) it takes 2-4 hours because you have to do the coloring frame by frame *cries*. But with photoshop it takes everywhere from 30 minutes to 1-2 hours i guess thank goodness for the smart object function ^^

34. A set that took you a long time/was really hard but you’re really proud of how it came out

This one . It took a while before i found a coloring i was satisfied with, but i really liked the end result :D

ask the gif maker

[rionisu]

sometimes i really think you need a good ol' river to quench that thirst :3c

you’re talking about this post right here

boy not even a gosh dang waterfall could quench the need for underrated characters who deserve better. such as cor leonis  if only you knew the dehydrated pain of minor role characters especially cor leonis

[svperlunary]

eggplant and eminence!

@siberion the post is somewhere down there on my blog now thanks to my queue lol so from my memory eggplant asked about my least favorite word? It’s pus. I hate it. Gross. What’s funny is, I can totally tolerate the word moist but it gets everyone else upset lol. The other ask asked about what keeps me motivated? Well, after not having any for so long & then placing it on a person of all things which was a bad idea, I don’t truly know anymore. It varies & changes. But it’s safe to say that when all is said & done, I want to be comfortable & happy in this world. Every day is spent trying to figure out how to get to that stage… not easy but it’s being done. I didn’t ask to be born but, here I am 🤷🏾‍♀️ gotta do something with this life I’ve been given now.

[rishutt]

1975 and sunrise!

1975: what is the first happy memory that comes to mind, recent or otherwise?

watching yuri on ice with my gf wahaha

sunrise: pick a quote and describe what it means to you personally.

“may your heart be your guiding key” from kingdom hearts aahha. this is one of my favorite phrases, although right now personally im confused about what my heart wants, specifically about my future. watching wtt this year really tugged at my old childhood dream to be a gymnast or an ice skater, so ive been rethinking what i really want to do, and at a really inconvenient time of my life since im about to graduate... sorry for rambling ahh

[rishutt]

bubblegum, pistachio, and mocha!

bubblegum: books or movies?

hmmmm im kinda in between on this one

pistachio: manga or anime?

im mostly in between on this one too lol i suppose i lean more towards manga bc i read more manga than watch anime

mocha: ideal weather conditions?

warm temp on the edge of hot with light rain. i love the atmosphere of that weather