The very first Rex

A super predator

Anomalocaris, which means strange shrimp in Greek, was the oldest ancestor of insects and spiders and belonged to the arthropod group. It was the first super-predator of its time.

Anomalocaris had large round eyes and a round mouth. Its body was many-jointed, covered with razor-sharp plates, looking completely different from all animals living today.

This was not uncommon in the Cambrian: This relatively short geological period of 50 million years produced some very extravagant animal designs, which, however, often turned out to be a dead end in further evolutionary history.

Anomalocaris was no exception. Because the first super-predator was highly specialised in its feeding behaviour, eating almost exclusively trilobites. However, when the trilobites, which looked like oversized woodlice and belonged to the arthropod group as well, developed a harder shell and also better senses as protection against Anomalocaris, the super-predator lost its only prey animal and became extinct. However, some relatives survived, and these other early arthropods would later evolve into the groups of insects, arachnids, scorpions, and millipedes.