500 million year old giant lobster fossil

Scientists have discovered the fossil of a 480 million-year-old sea creature in southeastern Morocco.

Simulation of the shape of a giant sea creature. Photo: Yale University

The giant sea creature fossil is called Aegirocassis benmoulae, named after its discoverer, Mohamed Ben Moula, a Moroccan fossil hunter. Resembling a giant lobster measuring 2m in length, the creature has many characteristics: a long head, a segmented body with slits on its back and fins along its sides.

According to scientists, this giant creature existed 480 million years ago, possibly holding the record for being the largest on Earth during its lifetime.

"Given its enormous size and strange shape, I think most people would be terrified if they encountered it underwater," Huffington Post quoted Dr. Peter Van Roy, a paleontologist at Ghent University, Belgium, lead author of the paper on the fossil, as saying.

Aegirocassis benmoulae is related to "anomalocaridids", the ancient ancestors of modern crustaceans. However, unlike the predatory "anomalocaridids", this creature is quite docile. It only filters seawater to eat zooplankton. Scientists believe that this may be the animal with the largest filter ever discovered.

The newly excavated fossil is considered to have many meanings in understanding the evolutionary process. The long fins along the body of Aegirocassis benmoulae may be the precursor to the two sides of the body of modern crustaceans today.

According to VnExpress