Ancient balloon-shaped animal fossil

A rare 520-million-year-old fossil shaped like a ‘squashed bird’s nest’ has been discovered in China by an international research team. This will help to shed new light on life within Earth’s ancient seas. The fossil is of a probable ‘chancelloriid’, a group of bizarre, balloon-shaped animals with an outer skeleton of defensive spines. The animal was flattened during the fossilization process so that it looks like a squashed bird’s nest. The research team named the species Nidelric pugio. The name of the fossil is derived from the Latin Nidus meaning ‘bird’s nest or ‘fancied resemblance to and adelric, derived from the Old English personal name ‘Aedelic’ ‘adel’, means  ‘noble’ and ‘ric’ meaning ‘a ruler’ which is a source for the name Aldridge. Yunnan Province yield a diverse array of fossils preserved with traces of their soft anatomy, including their legs, eyes, guts and even brains. Amongst the fossils are many animals that can be related to modern forms, including distant relatives of arthropods such as crabs and lobsters and a wide variety of worms.