Saccorhytus

Saccorhytus
Temporal range: Fortunian [1][2]
Reconstruction of Saccorhytus coronarius
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Superphylum: Ecdysozoa
Phylum: †Saccorhytida
Family: †Saccorhytidae
Han et al., 2017
Genus: †Saccorhytus
Han et al., 2017
Species:
†S. coronarius
Binomial name
†Saccorhytus coronarius
Han et al., 2017

Saccorhytus (from Latin saccus "bag" and Ancient Greek ῥύτις rhytis "wrinkle") is an extinct genus of animal possibly belonging to the superphylum Ecdysozoa,[3] and it is represented by a single species, Saccorhytus coronarius (from Latin attributive coronarius "[of a] crown"). The organism lived approximately 540 million years ago in the beginning of the Cambrian period. Initially proposed as a deuterostome, which would make it the oldest known species of this superphylum,[4][5] it has since been determined to belong to a protostome group called the ecdysozoans.[6]

Fossils of the species were first discovered in the Kuanchuanpu Formation of Shaanxi province of China by a team of scientists from the United Kingdom, China and Germany,[4] and the findings were first published in January 2017.[2][7]

  1. ^ Liu, Yunhuan; Zhang, Huaqiao; Xiao, Shuhai; Shao, Tiequan; Duan, Baichuan (2020-09-06). "An early Cambrian ecdysozoan with a terminal mouth but no anus". bioRxiv 10.1101/2020.09.04.283960.
  2. ^ a b Han, Jian; Conway Morris, Simon; Ou, Qiang; Shu, Degan; Huang, Hai (2017). "Meiofaunal deuterostomes from the basal Cambrian of Shaanxi (China)". Nature. 542 (7640): 228–231. Bibcode:2017Natur.542..228H. doi:10.1038/nature21072. ISSN 0028-0836. PMID 28135722. S2CID 353780.
  3. ^ Yunhuan Liu; Emily Carlisle; Huaqiao Zhang; Ben Yang; Michael Steiner; Tiequan Shao; Baichuan Duan; Federica Marone; Shuhai Xiao; Philip C. J. Donoghue (2022). "Saccorhytus is an early ecdysozoan and not the earliest deuterostome". Nature. 609 (7927): 541–546. Bibcode:2022Natur.609..541L. doi:10.1038/s41586-022-05107-z. hdl:1983/454e7bec-4cd4-4121-933e-abeab69e96c1. PMID 35978194. S2CID 251646316.
  4. ^ a b Ghosh, Pallab (30 January 2017). "Scientists find 'oldest human ancestor'". BBC. Retrieved 30 January 2017.
  5. ^ "Bag-like sea creature was humans' oldest known ancestor". Phys.org. 30 January 2017. Retrieved 30 January 2017.
  6. ^ Gill, Victoria (18 August 2022). "Mystery of half-billion year old creature with no anus solved". BBC.
  7. ^ Wade, Nicholas (30 January 2017). "This Prehistoric Human Ancestor Was All Mouth". New York Times. Retrieved 31 January 2017.