480 Million-Year-Old Fossil Sheds Light on 150-Year-Old Paleontological Mystery.

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M2 PRESSWIRE-10 January 2008-Yale University: 480 Million-Year-Old Fossil Sheds Light on 150-Year-Old Paleontological Mystery(C)1994-2008 M2 COMMUNICATIONS LTD

RDATE:10012008

New Haven, Conn. -- Discovery of an exceptional fossil specimen in southeastern Morocco that preserves evidence of the animal's soft tissues has solved a paleontological puzzle about the origins of an extinct group of bizarre slug-like animals with rows of mineralized armor plates on their backs, according to a paper in Nature.

While evolution has produced great diversity in the body designs of animals, over the course of history several highly distinct groups, such as trilobites and ammonites, have become extinct. The new fossil is of an unusual creature known as a...