# Id this 'evolutionary oddball?' \[Cambrian/Greenland: looks like spiny postage stamp\] **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 12, 2016, 12:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-this-evolutionary-oddball-cambrian-greenland-looks-like-spiny-postage-stamp/748735 "2016-03-12T12:35:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2016, 12:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-this-evolutionary-oddball-cambrian-greenland-looks-like-spiny-postage-stamp/748735/1 "2016-03-12T12:35:54Z")
In the late 1980s/early 1990s, John S. Peel and Simon Conway Morris discovered a fossil that they tentatively called ‘Grasper.’ At the time, they weren’t sure whether it might have been an annelid, arthropod, or even a lobopod. I couldn’t find a scientific name for it in the article. Is there any more recent info on this critter? [I’ve been going thru old science magazines before trashing them, and seeing what follow-ups there might be on some stories. This particular article referred to it as an ‘evolutionary oddball.’] ---
**Author:** ![wevets](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e9a140/32.png) [@wevets](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wevets)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2016, 1:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-this-evolutionary-oddball-cambrian-greenland-looks-like-spiny-postage-stamp/748735/2 "2016-03-12T13:22:59Z")
I know that Morris did a lot of work in the Burgess Shale of British Columbia - is it possible the fossil was there instead of Greenland? If so, could it be one of the ones listed on [this Wikipedia page](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fossils_of_the_Burgess_Shale#Notable_fossils)? A cursory scroll-though didn’t definitively identify what you might be asking about - do you have any more details? ---
**Author:** ![Blake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a9a28c/32.png) [@Blake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blake)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2016, 1:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-this-evolutionary-oddball-cambrian-greenland-looks-like-spiny-postage-stamp/748735/3 "2016-03-12T13:46:52Z")
[Here’s the article.](https://www.questia.com/article/1G1-12499395/evolutionary-oddball-surfaces-in-greenland) That probably helps. ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2016, 1:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-this-evolutionary-oddball-cambrian-greenland-looks-like-spiny-postage-stamp/748735/4 "2016-03-12T13:54:46Z")
And [here’s](http://s294.photobucket.com/user/badger60/media/grasper_zpszxfkhzcl.jpg.html) a drawing of what they thought (at the time, anyway) it looked like. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2016, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-this-evolutionary-oddball-cambrian-greenland-looks-like-spiny-postage-stamp/748735/5 "2016-03-12T17:57:59Z")
> [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](#): > > And [here’s](http://s294.photobucket.com/user/badger60/media/grasper_zpszxfkhzcl.jpg.html) a drawing of what they thought (at the time, anyway) it looked like. The illustration appears to match[Kerygmachela kierkegaardi](http://www.prehistoric-wildlife.com/species/k/kerygmachela.html), an arthropod in the Anomalocarididae. The original description is in this article: [http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v364/n6439/abs/364709a0.html](http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v364/n6439/abs/364709a0.html) ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2016, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-this-evolutionary-oddball-cambrian-greenland-looks-like-spiny-postage-stamp/748735/6 "2016-03-12T18:50:52Z")
Thank you.