During an expedition focused on fossils in a renowned area, a paleontologist from the University of Kansas stumbled upon a previously unknown prehistoric sea worm.
Displaying her enthusiastic "nerdy" nature, Rhiannon LaVine named the discovery.
came across the fossil of this 500-million-year-old creature while participating in fieldwork with a team investigating the geological Spence Shale formation.
Rhiannon LaVine, a research associate at the university's Biodiversity Institute and Natural History Museum,
as outlined in a news release from the university.
This formation spans northern Utah and southern Idaho,
“The first thing we see are these radial blades that look like stars or flowers.”
“One of the last times we were out there, I split open one of these pieces of rock and instantly knew it was something that wasn’t typical,” LaVine said in a statement.
“He was perplexed, he said, ‘I’ve never seen anything like that,’” LaVine said.
She said she quickly showed it to Julian Kimmig, the lead author on the study exploring the annelids.