This is a high quality 10:1 scale 3D model of Hallucigenia sparsa; one of the most enigmatic fossils found in Burgess Shale, Canada. Hallucigenia was an arthropod, related to the onychophores and tardigrades.
When it was first discovered, back in the year 1970, the legs were mistaken for the tentacles, and the tail was thought to be the head. Hallucigenia has a peculiar form with dimensions that vary between 10 and 50 mm. It consists of seven pairs of legs that end with claws, three pairs of tentacles along the neck, a pair of eyes and, surprisingly, a mouth and a throat fringed with teeth. This organism lived in the middle Cambrian about 550 million years ago, and science used to find it as one of the most interesting mysteries. Fortunately, by now it has a plausible genealogical placement.The work about this specimen was published by the researchers at Cambridge University and the University of Toronto, and was issued in the science journal Nature.
The model accurately follows the last reconstruction and study, carried out by Martin R. Smith & Jean-Bernard Caron.
Resin model of Hallucigenia sparsa, Burgess Shale
material: Full resin in 27 pieces (gray unassembled kit)
scale: 10: 1
size: 10cm
Design: Di Silvestro Gianpaolo and Simone Rasetti
ref. scientific: Martin R. Smith & Jean-Bernard Caron, Hallucigenia's head and the pharyngeal armature of early ecdysozoans.Nature volume 523, pages 75–78 (02 July 2015)
watch this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NaT4A8OEDgI