The latest 450-million-year-old fossil discovered in Ottawa isn’t in the Senate—it’s underground. The remains of a plumulitid machaeridian, an armour-plated annelid worm from the Paleozoic era, have been unearthed in the city’s downtown core and declared one of the world’s rarest fossils. Paleontologists Jakob Vinther of Yale University and Dave Rudkin of the Royal Ontario Museum say that the worms could “move relative to one another,” linking their rigid plates to form “protective body armour.” Related to leeches, the bristled, prehistoric plumulitid machaeridian are thought to have been rampant in what is now our nation’s capital. Plus ça change, etc.
• Remains of 450-million-year-old rare armor-plated creature found in Canada [Oneindia]
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