ScienceShot: Oldest Cardiovascular System Found in Ancient Shrimplike Creature

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ScienceShot: Oldest Cardiovascular System Found in Ancient Shrimplike Creature
They were crushed. Without warning, 520 million years ago an ancient tsunami or storm trapped 50 shrimplike creatures under layer after layer of fine dirt particles and mud in the seabed that formerly covered much of southwest China. But rather than pulverize them, the powdery silt and Cambrian oceanic chemicals preserved the 6-centimeter-long animals, known as Fuxianhuia protensa, with impeccable statuesque detail (top panel). This underwater Pompeii initially revealed the ancestral brains of arthropods—such as spiders, scorpions, and crustaceans—and today, scientists report in Nature Communications the discovery of the oldest known