A pair of 430-million-year-old mollusc fossils have stunned palaeontologists with their spikes which resemble the hairstyles of “emo” and punk mus

Ancient molluscs rocking punk and emo “hairstyles”

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2025-01-11 00:30:18

A pair of 430-million-year-old mollusc fossils have stunned palaeontologists with their spikes which resemble the hairstyles of “emo” and punk musicians.

The newly discovered molluscs were found in deposits in Herefordshire in England’s West Midlands. The deposits date to the middle of the Silurian period (443–420 million years ago). This period saw the first vascular plants and arthropods (ancestors of today’s crabs, spiders and insects) colonise land.

Silurian fish also underwent a diversification, including the first jawed fish. This was a crucial step in the evolution of the lineage which eventually became land-dwelling tetrapods: our ancestors.

Although molluscs evolved about 100 million years earlier during the Cambrian explosion, palaeontologists have struggled to piece together their evolution.

Today, Mollusca is second largest animal phylum (behind Arthropoda) in terms of number of species. Scientists estimate the total number of species could be up to 200,000.