Bizarre creature found in a cocoon has been reported by scientists after making the discovery, according to reports.
The recently discovered "bizarre animal" has been trapped 200 million years ago in a slimy cocoon, reportedLiveScience.
"The cocoon with the such-enclosed bell animal then was deposited in mud that over time turned into the sedimentary layer where we found it some 200 million years later," study researcher Benjamin Bomfleur told LiveScience.
According to the report, this bizarre creature found in a cocoon was a bell animal that looked similar to species in the genus Vorticella. The creature is so small, its body only extends 25 microns which is about the width of some human hairs, and it has a tightly coiled stalk about twice that long.
Scientist believe this bell animal lived during the Late Triassic Period, when the Earth was much warmer, with dense rain forests flourishing along what is today the Transantarctic Mountain Range where it was found. At the time, Antarctica was part of the supercontinent Gondwana, though it was still located at high latitudes.
"This preservation is quite bizarre, but soft-bodied organisms cannot usually become fossilized unless they are rapidly entombed in a medium that prevents further decay," study researcher and paleobotanist Benjamin Bomfleur, of the Biodiversity Institute at the University of Kansas.
