The fossilized remains of one of the earliest fishes to swim on Earth have been found and could answer many questions about how the structure of early vertebrates developed.
The fish, known as Metaspriggina, is dated as being from the Cambrian period and is about 505 million years old.
Two other specimens of Metaspriggina have been found in the Burgess Shale site, but they were incomplete and poorly preserved.
During a project headed by the Royal Ontario Museum in 2012 to the Marble Canyon area of Kootenay National Park, 44 new Metaspriggina fossils were found.
These new specimens show a pair of distinct arches, parts of the fish that would eventually become jaws in vertebrates.
It also shows clearly how the gills were organized in these early fishes.
The study of the new fossil, involving researching from the University of Cambridge and the Royal Ontario Museum, has led to the reclassification of Metaspriggina as one of the world’s earliest vertebrates.
Researchers say that vertebrates do appear on fossil records slightly earlier than these finds, but pinpointing when they actually appeared is difficult.
The new fossils collected are remarkably well preserved, officials say.
“The detail in this Metaspriggina fossil is stunning,” said lead author Professor Simon Conway Morris of Cambridge’s Department of Earth Sciences in a release. “Even the eyes are beautifully preserved and clearly evident.”
The branchial arches that later became the jaws is still the most significant discovery connected to the find.
“Obviously jawed fish came later, but this is like a starting post – everything is there and ready to go,” said the paper’s co-author Dr Jean-Bernard Caron, Curator of Invertebrate Palaeontology at the Royal Ontario Museum and Associate Professor at the University of Toronto.
Officials hope that this new discovery will help protect the Burgess Shale site as an important Canadian heritage and an UNESCO Heritage Site.
