SciNews has a story about the discovery of an important arthropod. Magnicornaspis garwoodi lived between 497 and 487 million years ago in the area of Quebec, Canada. The animal is important because it fills in the gap between the Cambian Explosion and the Great Ordovician Biodiversition Event (GOBE). It’s discovery hints that the source of this gap is sampling bias not an actual drop in biodiversity. This research was published in the paper “New exceptionally preserved arthropod from the Furongian of Canada” in the journal BMC Biology.

“Paleontologists have wondered whether this time of markedly less diversity of life could be linked to ocean chemistry, cooling climates or environmental instability,” said Flinders University’s Dr. Russell Bicknell.

“But perhaps we haven’t been looking at the right sedimentary rocks or fossil-bearing deposits to get a clear picture of the kinds of soft-bodied organisms and early anthropods that inhabited the planet at that time.”

Named Magnicornaspis garwoodi, the new enigmatic arthropod features broad head shields, segmented bodies and defensive spines that belong to the corcoraniid group.

Found near Québec in Canada and preserved within the Rivière-du-Loup Formation, the specimen was one of only a handful of species known from the Cambrian and Ordovician.