What is Timorebestia koprii?

Jan. 8, 2024

Scientists recently uncovered the fossils of the newfound species of carnivorous worm, named Timorebestia koprii, or "terror beast", in northern Greenland.

About Timorebestia koprii:

Timorebestia koprii, meaning ‘terror beasts’, is a species of carnivorous worm, one of the earliest carnivorous animals to have colonised the water column during the early Cambrian period (541 million to 485.4 million years ago).
The fossils were discovered from the Early Cambrian Sirius Passet fossil locality in North Greenland.
They were giants of their day and would have been close to the top of the food chain. That makes it equivalent in importance to some of the top carnivores in modern oceans, such as sharks and seals back in the Cambrian period.
Timorebestia is a distant but close relative of a living group of tiny marine worms known as arrow worms, or chaetognaths. These are much smaller ocean predators today that feed on tiny zooplankton.