Scientists in China have managed to unearth fossil evidence from creatures such as 512 million years old worms that limit the growth of marine intervertebrates — providing the earliest evidence of a parasitic relationship.
The ancient organism is kleptoparasite - meaning it takes food from its host. Etching from tubular animals is well preserved in brachiopod fossils in Maotianshan Shales, a paleontological spot in Yunnan province, Southwest China.
The creature lived during the Cambrian period, a time when life had not colonized dry land. Microscopic plants, microbes, and intervertebrates with exo skeletons including trilobites and arthropods, are some of the dominant forms of marine life, along with shell organisms known as brachiopods.
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Research researchers, published in the journal Nature, argue that the emergence of such parasites contributes to the so-called "Cambrian eruption", the event of the emergence of new life forms in super-fast time that occurred half a billion years ago.
Zhang Zhifei, a paleobiologist from Northwest University, became the leader of the fossil study along with other scientists from the Swedish Museum of Natural History and Macquarie University.
Zhang revealed hundreds of brachiopod shells coated with animals such as worms. Small brachiopods have small amounts. However, in large shells, the number of worms reaches a dozen or more — indicating a parasitic relationship.
Worm-like creatures are proven to be a nuisance, because they put their 'anchor' on the brachiopod to find a ride.
The researchers said what they found was clear evidence of parasitism because one of the parties had a clear negative biological effect on its host.
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It is known that brakiopods that are free from the "patch" of the creature, grow to a larger size. This shows that organisms that share food with brakiopods, limit their nutritional intake.
"Brakiopods that have worms in their shells have decreased biomass and fitness," the researchers wrote in their study.
Scientists believe this finding is evidence of the oldest parasitic-host relationship. "The emergence of these parasites had an important impact on the evolution of living things at the time - contributing to what became known as the Cambrian eruption," they concluded.
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