A Fossil Mystery, Solved by a Spin
Roy Plotnick of EaEs turned an Essexella specimen upside down while doing research. Immediately, the seemingly amorphous blob’s true identity began to take shape.
"Scientists published the first detailed scientific description of the blobs in 1979. Essexella fossils are composed of two structures — a textured, barrel-shaped region and a smooth bulb. Researchers posited that the textured area represented a skirtlike curtain that wrapped around jellyfish tentacles. The rounded region was the jellyfish bell. But as time passed, this description struck many researchers as odd. “We were really shoehorning it to fit the jellyfish model,” Dr. Plotnick said."
Read the full story The New York Times ➡️ go.uic.edu/roy-plotnick-nyt