#Nom Nom the anomalocaris

[cambriancrush]

nom-car is my anomalocaris plush

named both because aNOMaloCARis and because he is like a vehicle who devours

just felt the need to explain.

[zeetlezee]

Anomalocaris is starting at your art. Anomalocaris wishes to eat

Nom nom, go ahead <3

[palaeonecromancy]

Happy Fossil Friday!

Who: Anomalocaris canadensis

name meaning: "Odd shrimp" "from Canada"

pronunciation: Ah-nom-ah-low-care-iss can-ah-den-sis

What: A Dinocarid, radiodont arthropod with two long grasping appendages and large compound eyes. A ray of wing-like projections along the trunk and fish-like tail.

When: Cambrian Period (Anomalocaris sp. ranged 516 to 505 Ma)

Where: Burgess Shales British Columbia, Canada. From the Stephen/Burgess Shale Formation.

Fun fact!: A. canadensis is the type species for the Anomalocaris genus within Anomalocaridae and bonus fun fact: Since Anomalocaris are soft bodied organisms, they do not preserve well (usually) in the fossil record, with the exceptional cases of place like the Burgess Shale in BC. For many years, palaeontologists believed that Anomalocaris was actually three separate organisms, due to the poor preservation of the "softer" portions of the body, making it seem like the frontal appendages, mouth parts, and trunk of the animal were from different creatures. Exceptionally preserved specimens like the Left image above, show Anomalocaris in full form.

(def: the "type species" is the species upon which a genus's description is based and for which the genus is named and associated with).

Why are they cool?: Apart from the charismatic (in my personal opinion "adorable") visage of this tough little arthropod, they could use their long, segmented frontal appendages to curl and grasp prey, pulling it under to the mouth to be eaten, one of the first predatory creatures to emerge during the Cambrian Explosion.

Here is a link to a video showing Anomalocaris canadensis in its natural habitat from the wonderful Burgess Shale website, for those interested, check out their other videos on Burgess Shale/Cambrian fauna.

Image Credits: (Left: Fig. 1 - Daley, Allison C., and Gregory D. Edgecombe. “Morphology of Anomalocaris Canadensis from the Burgess Shale.” Journal of Paleontology 88, no. 1 (2014): 68–91. https://doi.org/10.1666/13-067. Right: M. Cross)

[bacony-cakes]

really puts the "nom" into "anomalocaris"

They turned him into a shaboingboing

Edit: I keep seeing this photo being reposted in places outside of Tumblr, and it surprises me every time. By the way, a "shaboingboing" is a hotdog. (Also, please stop cropping my name out of the photo! ;w; My posts are kewl!)

[bunjywunjy]

TWO WEIRD SHRIMP

I just got a mysterious package in the mail! 

gee, what could it be? 

why, it’s...

...TWO WEIRD SHRIMP! 

haha, just kidding.

meet Anomalocaris, apex predator of the Cambrian seas! (her name is Arwen)

Anomalocaris literally means “Strange Shrimp”, I’m not making that part up.

you see, when Anomalocaris (aah-NOM-aah-loh-CAR-isss) was first discovered in 1892 it was just a partial fossil, which looked like this

so naturally the guy who discovered it (Joseph Frederick Whiteaves) assumed that it was... well, two weird shrimp. can’t really blame him for that one. (this fossil always makes me hungry.)

parts of Anomalocaris were also misidentified by other scientists as a jellyfish or a sponge.

(it was the mouth. the mouth, guys.)

so imagine the look on the scientists’ faces when more complete fossils started showing up:

"what the FUUUUUCK, GUYS.” (Joseph Frederick Whiteaves, probably.)

anyway Anomalocaris was the apex predator of the Cambrian seas, feeding on trilobites and whatever the hell else it wanted. it was fast and agile, swimming around with its big fin... thingies.

no prey could hide from its sharp compound eyes or withstand its mighty bite. truly, it was the top predator of its age, and the first known specialized true predator species.

it ruled the seas from the early to middle Cambrian, a period of roughly 40 million years. 

it was also one of the largest animals alive at the time: up to three entire feet long.

(human provided for really hilarious sense of scale. watch your ankles, blue dude!)

while Anomalocaris might not be up to today’s standards, it still marks a very important advance in an early part of Earth’s history when life was still shelled and swimmy.

thanks, Anomalocaris!

“you welcome!”

----

thanks for reading! if you want a life-size Anomalocaris of your own, I got Arwen here.

you can find the rest of the Weird Biology series here.

if you enjoy my work, maybe buy me a coffee so I can do stuff like this more often.

[thylacines-toybox]

In celebration of one whole year of Thylacine’s Toybox, I looked up my most popular posts and set up a silly toy picnic on the floor with some of your favourites from the past year! There’s an interesting range of characters here…

Pawface bites (?) into a burger while the picnic’s smallest guests relax on their own mini blanket.

The thylacines got a pizza! Jellybean picks off some of the toppings... that’s fine.

Nova has a Big sushi platter and… is she going to drink the soy sauce? Nova, no!

Someone else wants a little sushi too…

The baby chimera is content with his sandwich and juice!

Pangea and Magenta dig in to some kibble, like the normal dogs they are! Stripy chooses the world’s weirdest grilled cheese instead.

Finally, Thunder (in proper party clothes) and Snocap chat and discover they have a lot in common. Also Nom Nom is there.

Looks like everyone had fun! Thanks for joining us at the picnic (and for enjoying my blog)!

[thylacines-toybox]

Hi there! I love your plushies! Your rainbow anomalocaris inspired me to make my own. I hope that's okay! He's mainly filled with weighted beads, so he's a little floppy. I'd love to know what you think of him!

Oh he looks very cool, his colours are so nice together!!

Nom Nom says NOM about it.

Did sewing in all those individual lobes give you a hard time too? Although it’s a creature made of pretty basic shapes, I found the part where you gotta put them all neatly together so tedious and fiddly lol.

[rainbowgod666]

Anomalocaris: ask the Foundation

Saltiness: GIVE ME LARGE GRANULES OF PINK HIMALAYA SALT TO SUCK ON

Loudness: (detonates nuclear warhead made out of memes and ytps)

What color is this: im on mobile, so Slate Grey But With No Blue Tinge

What day is it? [QUERY DENIED]

Where did you hide the bodies? how the fuck am i supposed to know? I m the one that kills them not the one that buries them. If they're fascists or anything-phobic i just *nom* y'kno.

A/S/L

What colour is this 🚩

What day is it?

Where did you hide the bodies?

Anomalocaris: Gosh I wish... Saltiness: fairly salty Loudness: 52%

What colour is this 🚩 that's a red flag

What day is it? today

Where did you hide the bodies? bold of you to assume I left bodies to be found

[thylacines-toybox]

Oi, Maddie! Nom Nom is not a pillow!

[thylacines-toybox]

Nom Nom bakes some muffins!

[thylacines-toybox]

Nom Nom contemplates the rockpools.

[the-unicorns-of-nienna]

[Image Description: two photographs of a plush anomalocaris. His body is tan, while each of his nine pairs of lobes is a different color of the rainbow. A white bandana patterned with rainbow stars is tied around his neck. End image description.]

Nom Nom (he/him)

Rainbow anomalocaris sewn by me in April 2022

[thylacines-toybox]

would u, mayhaps, consider selling any anomalocaris plushes at any point

I definitely wanna! I have sold one other just like Nom Nom, but he’s a lot of work to make and I get bored easily haha, so I’m not likely to do those often... I’d like to develop a printed fabric anomalocaris plush too, but for that I’d modify the pattern first so I don’t have to individually sew and perfectly align a ton of fins!

[thylacines-toybox]

omg omg love love love your rainbow anomalocaris 🥺😭💙 if you don't mind could you elaborate on how u sewed the eyes..? the way the sit on the head is phenomenal ! no matter what i hope you have a great day and i look forward to seeing you continue to share your collection!! 💙💙💙

Nom Nom has been getting so much love, I'm happy for him!

The eyes of this anomalocaris are fixed onto their own stalks (basically just shaped like a glove's fingertip) rather than straight to the head, and each eyestalk is then stuffed and sewn onto the head with a ladder stitch.

The tricky part was getting the eyestalks to be thin, but still wide enough for the eyes' metal washers to fit in there. They just barely fit! The width of the eyestalk is pretty much the diameter of the washer! It worked out though.

Also here is a fun secret..... these eyes are actually round noses!

[thylacines-toybox]

Nom Nom (he/him)

Rainbow anomalocaris sewn by me in April 2022

[chorus-bug-stuff]

Hi so anomalocaris are one of the few things that make me cry (/pos) and Nom Nom has made my day and I send nothing but undying love towards this beautiful creature. Thank you so much for sharing him. :')

Nom Nom (he/him)

Rainbow anomalocaris sewn by me in April 2022