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ANTIMONY CANYON, Garfield County — Years ago, the late fossil hunter Lloyd Gunther unearthed what, to the untrained eye, may have appeared to be a crude sketch of a tulip in the rock of Antimony Canyon, according to a report by the University of Kansas.
Gunther, a preeminent fossil collector of over 70 years, however, recognized the imprint in the rock for what it was: the remnant of an ancient marine animal. What would remain undiscovered for years was the rarity of his find.
After Gunther donated the fossil to the University of Kansas, researchers identified it as “the only fossilized specimen of a species previously unknown to science — an ‘obscure’ stalked filter feeder.” A paper on the findings was published in September in the Journal of Paleontology.
“This was the earliest specimen of a stalked filter feeder that has been found in North America,” lead author Julien Kimmig said in a news release. “This animal lived in soft sediment and anchored into the sediment. The upper part of the tulip was the organism itself. It had a stem attached to the ground and an upper part, called the calyx, that had everything from the digestive tract to the feeding mechanism. It was fairly primitive and weird.”
The stalked filter feeder nourished itself by filtering water to obtain food, like microplankton, Kimmig said.
The animal was found in Spence Shale — a geological formation prevalent in Utah and Idaho that preserves fossils dating back to the Cambrian period. The Spence Shale helped preserve details of the species’ soft-tissue, giving researchers a clear picture of the animal and plant life of the region, according to Kimmig.
“This gives us a better idea of what the early world was like in the Cambrian. It’s amazing to see what groups of animals had already appeared over 500 million years ago, like arthropods, worms, the first vertebrate animals — nearly every animal that we have around today has a relative that already lived during those times in the Cambrian,” Kimmig said in a news release.
In honor of Gunther, the researchers named the species Siphusauctum lloydguntheri, which became the second animal placed within its genus and the first Siphusauctum discovered outside the Burgess Shale, a fossil-rich deposit in the Canadian Rockies.
The stalked filter feeder was the only specimen found in the area, and researchers believe it may have lived a highly solitary life or drifted off from a community of similar animals. While scientists have previously studied other stalked filter feeders, Gunther’s fossil is the first of its species.
“There are several differences in how the animal looked,” Kimmig said in a news release. “If you look at the digestive tract preserved in this specimen, the lower digestive tract is closer to the base of the animal compared to other animals. The calyx is very slim — it looks like a white wine glass, whereas in other species it looks like a big goblet. What we don’t have in this specimen that the others have are big branches for filter feeding. We don’t know if those weren’t preserved or if this one didn’t have them.”
The researchers believe it’s unlikely there’s a living relative of the new species in the world anymore, though there are thousands of similar fossil specimens. The sea lily is the closest living thing to the new species’ lifestyle — though it’s still not a relative, Kimmig said.
“What is fascinating about this animal is we can clearly relate it to animals existing in the Cambrian and then we just don’t find it anymore,” Kimmig said in a news release. “It’s just fascinating to see how evolution works. Sometimes it creates something — and it just doesn’t work out.”
