A team of scientists has discovered fossils of a sea creature that "looks like an alien" that lived more than 500 million years ago in Canada.
The creature, called a lobopodian, was among 10,000 fossils found at Tulip Beds in Yoho National Park in 1983, but it remained unidentified.
So far, Royal Ontario Museum scientists have identified 50 new species since their discovery of the graveyard of marine organisms.
Nearly four decades after the fossils were discovered, the research team reported that the lobopodian, also called entothyreos Synnaustrus, was about two inches long and had 11 appendages.
The study, published in the Journal of Systematic Paleontology, reported that the long appendages were covered with “very short spines,” while feather-like appendages grew from the front of its body.
It turns out that different parts of the alien's body are specialized to perform different functions similar to those of arthropods (an invertebrate animal, such as an insect, spider, or crustacean).
Scientists said that the lobopodian's hind limbs may have been responsible for its protection. It may have fed on plankton in the water, including phytoplankton, zooplankton, and bacteria.
The study explained that this creature may have evolved as part of the Cambrian explosion that occurred during the Paleozoic era about 530 million years ago, as that era witnessed a significant increase in the area suitable for life on the sea floor, which lasted between 13 and 25 years, allowing marine animals to flourish.