Anomalocaridid :the largest predators in this world

This monster is the largest predators in the world in his time. He lived millions of past, grow bigger and continue to survive in such a long period of time. Sea animals known as anomalocaridid ​​it's actually not so big. The size is between 0.6 to 1.8 meters. But at the time that he is a predator with the greatest body size. 

Species of shrimp that looks like it's got a soft body parts, stomach a jagged, and tentacle-like limbs, which spiked. Its function is to drag a worm or other prey eaten. 

"This animal is above the food chain. He is a predator unmatched in his time," said Peter Van Roy, a paleobiologist from Ghent University in Belgium, as quoted by the website LiveScience. 

Recent research results indicate that this animal could rule the territorial waters of the mid-Cambrian period, between 542 million to 501 million years ago. This period is the period in which all major groups in the animal kingdom comes, and the middle complex ecosystem formed. 

In fact, according to researcher Derek Briggs who is also Director of the Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History, anomalocaridid ​​is one of the most iconic groups among groups of animals in the Cambrian era. 

The largest of these animals are found in rocky desert in southeastern Morocco, by a collector named Mohammed Ben Moula. From fossils, it is known that this predator lived 30 million years longer than previously estimated. 

From fossil-like structures 100 are also found in every segment of flexible sword along their backs. The researchers believe that the organs may function as gills. He lived in a muddy sea floor, with a depth of at least 100 meters below sea level. 

According to Van Roy, anomalocaridid ​​survive for so long indicates that they are able to adapt well and are successful predators. Not yet known exactly what causes anomalocaridid ​​be extinct. 

However, scientists suspect that the animal extinction associated with the emergence of two other predators in the early Ordovician period (after the Cambrian period - about 488 million to 472 million years ago), namely eurypterid (sea scorpion) and nautiloid (like a squid with a conical shell) . Therefore, the two predator that has a larger body size. 

"It seems anomalocaridid ​​can not compete by predators more sophisticated and can adapt better. While anomalocaridid ​​basically has a soft body, eurypterid have a tougher exoskeleton. The nautiloid have sturdy shells and a powerful beak," said Van Roy .