Scientist discovers legless, headless wonder older than the dinosaurs in South Africa and names it Sue after her mother

Paleontologists in England discovered the existence of a new marine species that roamed the Earth before the dinosaurs and nicknamed the headless arthropod “Sue” after one of their mothers, according to a new study.A 444 million-year-old fossil unearthed in South Africa details a new species of arthropod that was fossilized inside-out, according to the study published in the journal Palaeontology last week.The “legless, headless wonder” was named Keurbos susanae, or Sue for short, after its discoverer’s mother, according to a statement from the University of Leicester.The team said that the fossil was in stunningly perfect condition with its muscles, sinews, tendons and guts all intact as if it were preserved in a “time capsule,” Sarah Gabbott, a professor at the University of Leicester’s School of Geology and lead author of the paper, said in the statement.“This fossil is just so beautifully preserved, there’s so much anatomy there that needs interpreting.Layer upon on layer of exquisite detail and complexity,” Gabbott said.The researchers determined that Sue is a type of primitive marine arthropod, but struggled to determine much else concerning its exact evolutionary relationship so far, Gabbott said.They unearthed the fossil on Soom Shale, a band of silt and clay about 250 miles north of Cape Town, South Africa where similar artifacts are often found.

When the layers of rock first formed, a “devastating” glaciation wiped out nearly all life on Earth in one of the largest-ever mass extinction events recorded, researchers said.About 85% of Earth’s species were eliminated, but the slippery Sue species found shelter in a marine basin that kept it safe from the worst of the elements.The ancient arthropods became trapped in the toxic sediments.The water was void of oxygen, but a “stinky,” colorless gas called hydrogen sulphide dissolved in the water and may have helped create a chemical alchemy that uniquely fossilized Sue, the re...