Researchers created a 3-D model of a tri-radially symmetrical Tribrachidium fossil to simulate its feeding method. Photo by University of Bristol/M. Laflamme
BRISTOL, England, Nov. 30 (UPI) -- Using computer models, an international team of biologists have simulated the feeding behavior of a mysterious extinct organism called Tribrachidium, an ocean dwelling creature that lived 555 million years ago.
Based on simulations of the tri-radially symmetrical fossil -- using the principles of computational fluid dynamics -- scientists determined that Tribrachidium was a suspension feeder, sucking floating food particles from the surrounding water.
Like many of the animal's ancient peers, Tribrachidium relationship to modern species has long perplexed scientists. Previously, researchers believed the few large, complex species inhabiting Earth between 635 million and 541 million years ago formed simple ecosystems organized around a single method of consumption.
The latest findings, published this week in the journal Science Advances, upend these speculations.
"For many years, scientists have assumed that Earth's oldest complex organisms, which lived over half a billion years ago, fed in only one or two different ways," Simon Darroch, an assistant professor at Vanderbilt University, explained in a press release. "Our study has shown this to be untrue, Tribrachidium and perhaps other species were capable of suspension feeding. This demonstrates that, contrary to our expectations, some of the first ecosystems were actually quite complex."
Though it now appears the Earth's earliest ecosystems may have been more complicated than paleontologists previously thought, plenty of mystery remains. Still, researchers are excited by the potential of computational fluid dynamics -- a branch of scientific modeling previously relegated to the field of engineering.
"The computer simulations we ran allowed us to test competing theories for feeding in Tribrachidium," said study author Imran Rahman, a paleontologist and research fellow at the University of Bristol. "This approach has great potential for improving our understanding of many extinct organisms."
