Pig-Snout Looking Fossil Found in South Pacific
An eight-armed, pig-snouted brittle star found in the depths of the South Pacific has roots reaching back to the days of the dinosaurs. Researchers discovered the brittle star in 2015, in a barrel of unidentified specimens stored in the French National Museum of Natural History in Paris.
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00:00Scientists have found a living fossil lurking in the South Pacific.
00:23This creature, a brittle star covered with pig snouts, is as old as the dinosaurs.
00:35The enigmatic animal was found in 2011 on an expedition to an underwater volcanic ridge
00:40off New Caledonia.
00:56The creature had eight arms, more than the five or six typical of brittle stars.
01:07It also had long jaws filled with teeth on its underside, and it looked like it was made
01:14of dozens of pig snouts snapped together.
01:20The newly discovered species, Ophiozora expodi, wasn't closely related to other echinoderms,
01:31a group that includes brittle stars, starfish, and sand dollars.
01:40Instead, it belongs to a family of creatures that has relatives dating back to 180 million
01:47years ago.
01:52Scientists think the ocean region where it was found may be a hotspot for living fossils,
01:58or species that have been relatively unchanged for many millions of years.
02:08That's because the conditions in these tropical waters there haven't changed much since the
02:12Jurassic period.
02:33Expeditions around New Caledonia are ongoing, and hopefully scientists will discover more
02:39dinosaur-era creatures.