Scientists have uncovered the most bizarre ancient creature to date, as this animal does not look like anything alive on Earth today, where its distinct shape is most likely used to collect drifting particles underwater during feeding, according to a new study.

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This primordial creature is known as the Tribrachidium that lived in shallow marine environments some 550 million years ago. The animal is also shaped like a disk with three tentacle like arms that are jutting out from its flat body.

The Tribrachidium oddly possesses a three fold symmetry, which means it has three segments that are mirror images of one another, where humans are two fold or bilateral and starfish have a five fold symmetry. Scientists note that nothing alive today has this three fold symmetry.

According to lead author of the study, Imran Rahman from the University of Bristol, since there is no existing comparison, this is really challenging to figure out how the organism was like when it was alive, its movements, its feeding patterns and diet including its reproduction process.

Using fluid dynamics, the team determined that the Tribrachidium was most likely a suspension feeder, which means it feeds on floating organic particles underwater. Today, suspension feeders include many crustaceans, bivalves and brittle stars.

This creature also existed some 40 million years prior to the Cambrian explosion, which is when life on Earth rapidly increased and diversified. These new findings provide a glimpse of how complex life was during this time and it's even possible that the Tribrachidium changed its environment.

Rahman explains suspension feeding as mobilizing organic material that are being carried around in the water column, increasing the passage of sunlight in the water and increasing oxygen as well.

To determine how the Tribrachidium fed, the team created a 3D digital model of the organism using a cast from a fossil recovered in southern Australia where they applied virtual currents that are found in shallow seafloors. The currents slowed down when they cross the Tribrachidium and form eddies that recirculate the waters back to the creature, into the nooks and crannies of its symmetrical arms. 

This new study is published in the journal Science Advances. 

Tagsancient three armed creature, Tribrachidium, animal evolution, suspension feeder, ancient organisms, three fold symmetry in animals, first ecosystems on earth