Really cool to see engineering methods applied to paleontology. Quick correction on finite element analysis. FEA uses a 3d model and subdivides that into a mesh composed of a finite number of elements, usually triangles. Those elements and their relations can then be numerically solved (FEM) so that you can get the local stress for a given external force. That force has to be defined prior to calculation though.
Anomalicaris being a cambrian sea turtle would be incredibly cool. Although I doubt they would only eat jellyfish. Since sea turtles dont only eat jellyfish. Maybe they filter fed and ate jellyfish?
Very interesting... but i always saw the two frontal appendages as being for picking up and flipping over its prey and using the ring shaped jaw to do the crushing and piercing.
One thing- Aren't there several trilobite fossils with "W" shape gouges in the side of them which line up with the hypothesized anomalocaris mouth's mechanism of biting? The appendages probably weren't for crushing, but just grabbing and maneuvering to the mouth.
@@anomalocaris_man i did too, turns out only Aegirocassis and Pseudoangustidontus fliterfed, the rest either sifted sand like Cambroraster or actively hunted prey like Peytoia
Some people think Anomalocaris used its appendages to turn trilobites over, its outer radiodont teeth to hold them still, and it "throat teeth" to chew. However, I don't really have a dog in this fight; I think we should be open minded. Maybe it mostly eating worms and proto-cordates & something else was eating the trilobites.
I always say that animals alive today do many things that skeleton wise we would never guess they do. So I'm always open minded. Who knows what these ancient animals did.
@@chancegivens9390 Yes, absolutely. The calculations that Anomalocaris could not hunt trilobites are based on the fact its appendages and radial teeth are so delicate they would fracture. And maybe that is the whole picture. Case closed. Maybe. But, Radiodonts, like the last common ancestor of all Ecdysozoans, also had throat teeth. I personally think the appendages could have been used to lift trilobites, the radial teeth could have just held them still & throat teeth might have done the chewing. However, that may very well be wrong. I wish there was at least 1 radiodont animal alive that could give us more clues, but sadly, the entire clade is gone.
@@chancegivens9390 Well, watching it again, the argument is, the spines on the arms are fragile & they only ever found 1 anomalocaris fossil with 1 broken spine, so they were not breaking their spines & growing them back regularly. I still wonder if the arms & outer teeth could have been used for holding & the blunt throat teeth did the crushing & biting. But, then again...... like @RaptorChattor said, around this time, we see a lot more burrows & hard bodied animals on the ocean floor. Maybe those animals were becoming more common b/c predators were still specializing in the free swimming soft bodied prey & had not yet adapted to eating hard animals that hide in burrows. And there is a taphonomic bias against finding the soft bodied free swimming prey fossilized.
One point, why would the "arms" have to crush the trilobites? wouldn't they just have to catch the trilobite and maneuver it into the mouth? from there the jaws could do the processing of the trilobite or just swallow it whole? Also, aren't there fossils of trilobites that look like they have had a piece bitten out of them?
Minor correction from an engineer: Finite Element Analysis (FEA) does not refer to the data available for a part or an object. It refers to the method of subdividing your object into a large (but finite) number of very small (but not infinitely small) components (or elements) - and then performing calculations for things like mechanical stress / strain / deformation, thermal conductivity / expansion, etc., on each element individually. This allows us to simulate parts with very complex geometry, and characterize their strength or thermal performance, without having to derive explicit, extremely long-winded equations for each part individually - which in itself would be impossible for shapes as complex as thin-shell automobile bodies, for instance.
they’re stem-arthropods, so they fall just outside actual Arthropoda, but they’re very close to it. so less related to brine shrimp than trilobites or spiders are.
Ever seen a camel spider at night? I’ve seen them in America and Africa, and they all do the same thing: run around blind with their front legs stretched out until they run into an insect they can eat. I imagine a similar behavior for these animals, swimming through the water along the sea bed mostly blind to what’s in front of them, and grabbing any prey they run into. It’s an easy and lazy way of hunting for an animal with no intelligence, and if nature is anything it’s lazy
@@hal9899 “for the time” is not saying much. They were no more advanced than a modern scorpion’s eyes, and those mainly only see light and dark. Notice where the Anomalocaris’ eyes point. If a predator’s eyes are pointing a different direction than their mouth parts, chances are they aren’t using their eyes to hunt.
theres a radiodont that could kill trilobites amplectobelua had 3 pairs of blade like structures near its mouth called gnathobases that could likely slice through prey
I would say anomalocarus ate soft stuff like jellyfish. Those spines look a bit like baleen. It might have grabbed its prey and sucked the insides out.
The caricature is incorrect, the eyes got squished out of their sockets so it looks like they had eyes on stalks but it’s not true. What’s amazing is the fact that this organism had harder eyes than normal which could maintain their shape until fossilized
That could absolutely have been the case. And then sudden shifts of mud dunes covered both. I haven't seen anything on the taphonomy of the Emu Shale, so not sure if that's the preservation mechanism.
@@RaptorChatter Yeah. I think sometimes people whose claims get dismissed because of who they are/previous claims deserve to have their argument be evaluated but basically every he's said is wack. Especially the way he says something is true because it is with no other explanation or reason.
Extremely interesting research! I can really tell you Anomalocare about the information you're sharing. Thank you!
Oh hi Tyler's animals from the seven days of science video
@@trilobite3120Hello there! Seems we have similar interests
Really cool to see engineering methods applied to paleontology. Quick correction on finite element analysis.
FEA uses a 3d model and subdivides that into a mesh composed of a finite number of elements, usually triangles.
Those elements and their relations can then be numerically solved (FEM) so that you can get the local stress for a given external force. That force has to be defined prior to calculation though.
Thanks! I appreciate the extra knowledge on it. FEA is not really my thing, so thanks for letting me know!
My money is on jellyfish as it's prey. It would need to restrain them to feed in water column and the arms would be ideal for that.
Anomalicaris being a cambrian sea turtle would be incredibly cool. Although I doubt they would only eat jellyfish. Since sea turtles dont only eat jellyfish. Maybe they filter fed and ate jellyfish?
Meybe worms? They also softbody and "slippery"
Nectocaris too! It’s soft-bodied and pelagic as well!
I thought the same as I was watching. Jellyfish are perfect prey, but anything soft bodied and away from the sea floor matches the study
Very interesting... but i always saw the two frontal appendages as being for picking up and flipping over its prey and using the ring shaped jaw to do the crushing and piercing.
Was about to say this.
One thing- Aren't there several trilobite fossils with "W" shape gouges in the side of them which line up with the hypothesized anomalocaris mouth's mechanism of biting? The appendages probably weren't for crushing, but just grabbing and maneuvering to the mouth.
those gouges line up better with Peytoia’s mouth, and that radiodont probably *did* eat hard-shelled benthic prey
@@IC1101-Capinatator i thought peytoia filter fed
@@anomalocaris_man i did too, turns out only Aegirocassis and Pseudoangustidontus fliterfed, the rest either sifted sand like Cambroraster or actively hunted prey like Peytoia
@@IC1101-Capinatator oh cool!
Some people think Anomalocaris used its appendages to turn trilobites over, its outer radiodont teeth to hold them still, and it "throat teeth" to chew. However, I don't really have a dog in this fight; I think we should be open minded. Maybe it mostly eating worms and proto-cordates & something else was eating the trilobites.
I always say that animals alive today do many things that skeleton wise we would never guess they do. So I'm always open minded. Who knows what these ancient animals did.
@@chancegivens9390 Yes, absolutely. The calculations that Anomalocaris could not hunt trilobites are based on the fact its appendages and radial teeth are so delicate they would fracture. And maybe that is the whole picture. Case closed. Maybe. But, Radiodonts, like the last common ancestor of all Ecdysozoans, also had throat teeth. I personally think the appendages could have been used to lift trilobites, the radial teeth could have just held them still & throat teeth might have done the chewing. However, that may very well be wrong. I wish there was at least 1 radiodont animal alive that could give us more clues, but sadly, the entire clade is gone.
@@chancegivens9390 BTW, I learned about throat teeth from the video "The origins of Ecdysozoan body plans" on channel @PaleoCast.
@wcdeich4 Maybe it picked up trilobites and broke their shells up against rocks. Who knows how smart they were or what kind of behaviors they had.
@@chancegivens9390 Well, watching it again, the argument is, the spines on the arms are fragile & they only ever found 1 anomalocaris fossil with 1 broken spine, so they were not breaking their spines & growing them back regularly. I still wonder if the arms & outer teeth could have been used for holding & the blunt throat teeth did the crushing & biting. But, then again...... like @RaptorChattor said, around this time, we see a lot more burrows & hard bodied animals on the ocean floor. Maybe those animals were becoming more common b/c predators were still specializing in the free swimming soft bodied prey & had not yet adapted to eating hard animals that hide in burrows. And there is a taphonomic bias against finding the soft bodied free swimming prey fossilized.
Liking the lighting upgrade in this vid
Thanks!
One point, why would the "arms" have to crush the trilobites? wouldn't they just have to catch the trilobite and maneuver it into the mouth? from there the jaws could do the processing of the trilobite or just swallow it whole?
Also, aren't there fossils of trilobites that look like they have had a piece bitten out of them?
I know there are bites recorded on trilobites such as Isotelus. I think those were attributed to Endocerid nautiloids, due to the angular shape.
@@JonahHabeck Isotelus was from the Ordovician. Anomalocaris was already extinct at that time.
@@RokuroCarisu Yes I'm aware, I was talking about that as a parallel example, rather than direct evidence of Anomalocaris feeding behavior.
Minor correction from an engineer: Finite Element Analysis (FEA) does not refer to the data available for a part or an object. It refers to the method of subdividing your object into a large (but finite) number of very small (but not infinitely small) components (or elements) - and then performing calculations for things like mechanical stress / strain / deformation, thermal conductivity / expansion, etc., on each element individually. This allows us to simulate parts with very complex geometry, and characterize their strength or thermal performance, without having to derive explicit, extremely long-winded equations for each part individually - which in itself would be impossible for shapes as complex as thin-shell automobile bodies, for instance.
So, what was eating trilobites?
Maybe nothing, Maybe other trilobites, early arachnid relatives, or maybe a different, and undiscovered type of anomalocarid.
One of my favorite prehistoric animals is the anamlacaris because they are cool and I also liked the video!
Can you talk about Megamastax? It's the first vertebrate apex predator ever
How close are they related to brine shrimp
they’re stem-arthropods, so they fall just outside actual Arthropoda, but they’re very close to it. so less related to brine shrimp than trilobites or spiders are.
awsome video! :)))
Ever seen a camel spider at night? I’ve seen them in America and Africa, and they all do the same thing: run around blind with their front legs stretched out until they run into an insect they can eat. I imagine a similar behavior for these animals, swimming through the water along the sea bed mostly blind to what’s in front of them, and grabbing any prey they run into. It’s an easy and lazy way of hunting for an animal with no intelligence, and if nature is anything it’s lazy
they had really advanced eyes for the time though
@@hal9899 “for the time” is not saying much. They were no more advanced than a modern scorpion’s eyes, and those mainly only see light and dark. Notice where the Anomalocaris’ eyes point. If a predator’s eyes are pointing a different direction than their mouth parts, chances are they aren’t using their eyes to hunt.
@@hal9899 yes, but it's eyes aren't pointed down, it couldn't look at it's food
@@Grand_HistoryTheir eyes had more lenses that those of a dragonfly.
@@hircenedaelenIt had radial vision. It's individual lenses pointed in nearly all directions at once.
Eeem-you, not Eeemoo is how it is pronounced in Aussie😉 You did get closer than many; cheers Mate! Love your work.
theres a radiodont that could kill trilobites
amplectobelua had 3 pairs of blade like structures near its mouth called gnathobases that could likely slice through prey
Cool video👏👍
I would say anomalocarus ate soft stuff like jellyfish. Those spines look a bit like baleen. It might have grabbed its prey and sucked the insides out.
The caricature is incorrect, the eyes got squished out of their sockets so it looks like they had eyes on stalks but it’s not true. What’s amazing is the fact that this organism had harder eyes than normal which could maintain their shape until fossilized
Main question is: Does Anomalocaris ever hunted by other Anomalocaris?
Arthopods have that habit...
@@valivali8104 sweet delicious cannibalism
Protein is protein
Probably. They'd be mostly soft bodied, and they seemingly hunted soft bodied prey.
Could a human eat an anomalocaris
Maybe trilobites ate them when they fell onto the ocean floor?
That could absolutely have been the case. And then sudden shifts of mud dunes covered both. I haven't seen anything on the taphonomy of the Emu Shale, so not sure if that's the preservation mechanism.
Trilobites don't look all that tasty, but Anomalocaris looks like it would be nice fried in butter.
cool
Or did trilobites scavenge on dead anomalocarids?
They could have. A lot of trilobite fossils though aren't the actual animal though, but the shed exoskeleton of them, not sure which is the case here.
❤
this is great, thank you
David Peters suggested radiodonts were algal grazers.
Everything that comes out that mouth's man must be ignored
Nothing Peters says should be taken seriously. His methods are terrible is to polite of a way to put it.
@@RaptorChatter Yeah. I think sometimes people whose claims get dismissed because of who they are/previous claims deserve to have their argument be evaluated but basically every he's said is wack. Especially the way he says something is true because it is with no other explanation or reason.
@@Fede_99*_exactly_*
Big shrimp boi does not hunt trilobites
Attempting a phylogenetic study of these animals, that's cute.