Kiwi shrimp is also called "shrimp", but it has nothing to do with our modern shrimp. Qixia was a great man more than 500 million years ago, with a length of more than two meters. Maybe it's too big. Most of the preserved fossils are fragmented and cannot be fully seen until they are combined. Scientists have found the remains of small crustaceans in the fecal fossils of strange shrimp, which shows that it is a carnivore in the Cambrian ocean, the ruler of the marine world and the ultimate consumer of food. The discovery of kiwi shrimp shows that there was indeed a complete food chain in the ocean at that time. The new research found that the carnivorous limbs of this shrimp can bend and the legs can walk on the seabed, but its appendages are not differentiated and there are no joints between the joints.
The diet of kiwi shrimp may include other carnivores. It has such a big body, such a big mouth and such a pair of big catching organs. It can prey on the biggest creatures at that time, and it will never only eat the creatures at the bottom of the food chain, because its claws are too thick, so it is not so easy to catch tiny food.
No one would have thought that kiwi shrimp was not the' fittest' in the ocean at that time. It can be called the' Big Mac' in the ocean. It is at the top of the food chain and can easily catch enough food, but no other creatures can threaten its survival. However, just like dinosaurs that once dominated on land, kiwi shrimp has long since become extinct.
Strange shrimp has wings with lobes on both sides of its body, which looks like modern shrimp. Its two tentacles are covered with barbs and its mouth is composed of crustaceans. In the past, paleontologists generally believed that it was reasonable that these strange shrimp could prey on and chew trilobites.
However, in Denver, Colorado, USA, the American Geological Society held an annual seminar, at which a 3D model of a strange shrimp mouth was displayed, showing that this ancient carnivore, as everyone imagined, probably only ate soft mushy food.
Studies have shown that kiwi shrimp mainly eat soft things, such as insects in mud and soft microorganisms floating in water.
Strange shrimp was first discovered in Canada. At that time, only the fossil of its front paw was found, which was mistaken for the tail of a shrimp. Scientists also imagined a shrimp head, which was named Qixia because it was not a shrimp. 1994, Chinese scientists found a complete strange shrimp fossil in Maotian Mountain, which corrected the previous mistakes. The so-called "tail" is actually its paw.
The most complete fossil of strange shrimp appears in the shale of Maotianshan Mountain.
1992, a highway was built on the northern slope of Maotian Mountain, which was pushed out by bulldozers for a huge section, giving the opportunity to find strange shrimp fossils. At the beginning of the first specimen, only the end of the front appendage was exposed. Driven by curiosity, Zhou of Nanjing Institute of Geology and Paleontology restored it in the field. When a pair of complete front appendages and head were exposed, she couldn't help shouting excitedly.
The appearance of the first exotic shrimp specimen leads to the appearance of the third complete exotic shrimp. In fact, this' third' strange shrimp fossil was collected by Zhu of Nanguo Institute as early as 1990, but its strange shape was confusing at first, so it was left out in the office tray for nearly two years. With the recovery of the specimen, a complete and fierce predator image appeared in front of people.