The iconic Shai-Hulud sandworms from Dune have now inspired the naming of a new species of ancient sea worm, the Shaihuludia shurikeni, from the Dune books (and subsequent films).
The find was located in a geologic formation that runs through northern Utah and southern Idaho and is widely recognized for its quantity of Cambrian fossils dating back roughly 505 million years.
The worm, described by a research team from the United States and Germany, is much smaller than the Dune type, fitting comfortably into the palm of your hand and distinguished by the star-shaped chaeta (stiff bristles) on its back.
Because of the radial blade forms left behind in the rock, specialists were originally confused about what they'd uncovered; but, after close examination, researchers determined that what they were looking at was an animal, not a mineral.
"The way the fossil is preserved is also of particular interest," says geobiologist Julien Kimmig of the State Museum of Natural History in Germany. "Most of the soft tissue is preserved as an iron oxide blob, suggesting the animal died and was decomposing for a while before it was fossilized."
The team used a variety of techniques, including scanning electron microscopy and energy-dispersive X-ray spectrometry, to determine the structure and chemical composition of what left the fossil behind, as well as to learn more about the fossilization process.
The newly discovered creature is classified as an annelid, also known as a segmented worm. In terms of naming, Shai-Hulud is the Fremen name for the imaginary sandworms on Frank Herbert's planet Arrakis, while "shuriken" is the Japanese word for throwing star.
Previously, just one species of annelid has been discovered in this Spence Shale Lagerstätte site, which the researchers characterize as a treasure trove of preserved remnants. As a result, it is critical for determining how the region would have appeared half a billion years ago.
The new study did, in fact, assist the researchers in reclassifying another fossil from the same location. Trilobites, brachiopods, mollusks, and early arthropods would have dominated marine ecosystems in this portion of North America during the Cambrian period.
"It's very cool to think about our planet as a record of history and all of the different environments that have happened over billions of years, all on the same ground we stand on," says Rhiannon LaVine, a paleobiologist at the University of Kansas in the United States.
We've had alien worlds beneath our feet
The findings were published in Historical Biology.
