Researchers at the University of Cambridge in England have linked one of the strangest fossils ever discovered, known as Hallucigenia, to present worm-like animals that inhabit tropical rainforests.

The Hallucigenia was a peculiar worm equipped with legs that lived on the ocean floor over 500 million years ago before the species died out. Scientists have been confused for decades on how to classify the extinct animal.

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While the animal's fossils were unearthed in the 1970s, the scientists had no clue on what creature they were looking at. What the researchers initially thought to be the tentacles along its back are now known to be the Hallucigenia's legs, and its legs are actually spines along the animal's back.

Dr. Martin Smith, one of the study's researchers and scientist at Cambridge's department of earth sciences, and his colleagues found likenesses between velvet worms and the claws. The layers of the extinct animal's cuticle were stacked together.

The study on the fossils has given noteworthy insights into the evolutionary tree of the phylum Arthropoda, which includes insects, arachnids and crustaceans.

"Most gene-based studies suggest that arthropods and velvet worms are closely related to each other; however, our results indicate that arthropods are actually closer to water bears, microscopic water-dwelling animals", said Dr. Javier Ortega-Hernandez, co-author of the study.

Dr. Smith said that the results have paved the way for scientists to comprehend how the evolution of various animals took place as time went on. It has also been proposed by majority of the prior gene-based classification studies that there is a strong affinity between velvet worms and arthropods.

Members of the phylum are strongly related to tardigrades, a group of microscopic stalwart creatures that are able to survive in environments where sub-zero temperatures are the norm.

The Hallucigenia fossils were discovered in the Burgess Shale, in the Rocky Mountains of Canada

TagsFossil, Paleontology, Cambrian, Arthropod, Worm, Science, scientific research