#Early Cambrian fossil discovery gives new understanding into the origin of hemichordates

In this particular case, Gyaltsenglossus suggests that the ancestral hemichordate may have been able to use the feeding strategies of both of the modern groups. Like acorn worms, the long proboscis may have been used to feed on nutrient-filled marine mud, while at the same time, and like the pterobranchs, the array of six feeding arms was probably used to grab suspended food particles directly from the water above where it was crawling.
Hemichordates belong to a major division of animal life called Deuterostomia, which includes chordates like fish and mammals, and not the division of animal life called Protostomia, that includes arthropods such as insects and annelids such as earthworms. Dr. Nanglu explains, when looking at Gyaltsenglossus, we’re actually looking at a very, very distant relative of our own branch of vertebrate and human evolution.
“The close relationship between hemichordates and our own evolutionary group, the chordates, is one of the first things that made me excited to research them,” Nanglu explains. “Understanding the ancient connections that join animals like fish and even humans to their distant cousins like sea urchins and acorn worms is such an interesting area on the evolutionary tree and Gyaltsenglossus helps bring that link into focus a little bit more clearly.”
The original 1909 discovery and research about the Burgess Shale was made by Charles Walcott, who was Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution at the time. The Burgess Shale fossil sites are located within Yoho and Kootenay National Parks and are managed by Parks Canada.

Provided by
Royal Ontario Museum