500 million-year-old worm with ‘shuriken’ spikes named after gigantic Dune sandworms | Live Science
A newfound, 500-million-year-old fossilized sea worm has been unearthed in northern Utah. This ancient worm would have glided through the ocean during the Cambrian period (541 million to 485.4 million years ago), which was marked by a surge of new life on Earth sometimes dubbed the “Cambrian explosion.”
The new species is named Shaihuludia shurikeni. Its genus is inspired by the fictional “Shai-Hulud” worms on the spiceworld Arrakis in the “Dune” novels.
“I’m a big ol’ nerd and at the time I was getting really excited for the ‘Dune’ movies,” Rhiannon LaVine, the researcher who made the discovery, said in a statement.
The species name references the Japanese word for throwing star “shuriken” because of the fossil’s blade-like bristles, which are known as chaetae and are common in annelids, a phylum of segmented worms.
Having watched the movie Dune only three or four times, I am no nerd. Our series on worms continues, however.