An Ancient Snorkeler
Long before dinosaurs thundered across the land, before even the first fish dared to sprout fins, an unassuming yet extraordinary creature roamed the ancient seas. It was... a snail. Yochelcionella (yo-kel-see-oh-nell-uh ) is a tiny, enigmatic mollusk from the Cambrian period, which ended about 485 million years ago. Its shell is adorned with a delightfully perplexing feature, a tubular snorkel-like extension near its peak. Paleontologists are debating its function. Was it an inhalant siphon drawing in fresh, oxygen-rich water? Or an exhalant tube expelling spent deoxygenated currents? Perhaps, in an elegant evolutionary flourish, it did both! No matter the answer, this humble creature is a key to the great puzzle of molluscan evolution. Yochelcionella greenlandica, stolen from Atkins & Peel, 2008. The Cambrian was a period where evolution tried out a vast diversity of body plans. Imagine an ocean floor teeming with newly evo...