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A28 SCIENCE
Saturday 5 auguSt 2017

Scientists ID tiny prehistoric Warm winter, monsoon

sea worm with 50 head spines rain leading to bee

attacks in Arizona

BY SETH BORENSTEIN TUCSON, Ariz. (AP) — of bees Thursday while
AP Science Writer Two deadly bee attacks trimming a tree at a Tu-
WASHINGTON (AP) — in the past week in the bac golf resort.
Long before dinosaurs Tucson area likely are The start of a concert by
roamed the Earth, a bi- the result of a warm win- Matchbox Twenty was
zarre creature with a Ve- ter and recent monsoon delayed by more than
nus flytrap-like head swam rain, experts said Friday. 90 minutes Thursday
the seas. “Rain makes flowers night after a bee swarm
Scientists have uncovered makes bees,” said Dr. settled into the reserved
fossils of a tiny faceless Steven Thoenes, owner seating area at a Tucson
prehistoric sea worm with of Beemaster Inc., a amphitheater.
50 spines jutting out of its pest control company Seventy percent of all
head. in Tucson. “There were bee attacks in Arizona
When some unsuspecting no freezes last winter involve landscapers and
critter came too close, its to knock them down. hives being disturbed,
jaw-like spines snapped We’re seeing a lot of big according to Thoenes,
together and dinner was In this illustration by Marianne Collins/Royal Ontario Museum colonies now, and the who said he has been
served. shows a Capinatator praetermissus. Long before dinosaurs bees are big and nasty.” studying bees for 46
The discovery reported in roamed the Earth, a bizarre creature swam the seas, a On Monday, a 49-year- years and owned his
Thursday’s journal Current miniaturized prequel of “Jaws.” old landscaper died pest control business for
Biology offers a glimpse Associated Press after being attacked 25 years.
into the Cambrian explo- larger and with far more million years ago at a time and stung while he was The bloom of flowers
sion of life on Earth about spines in its facial armory when creatures started at a home outside of means a lot more food
541 million years ago. but without the special- getting bigger and more Tucson. Two days later, for bees, and “more
The new creature dubbed ized teeth of its descen- diverse. a 75-year-old Rio Rico bees mean a lot big-
Capinatator praetermissus dants, said Derek Briggs It’s difficult to find com- man who was allergic ger colonies,” said Justin
is so different that scien- of Yale University who led plete fossils belonging to to bees died after be- Schmidt, a scientist with
tists said the fossils repre- a team that discovered the chaetognatha family ing stung more than 100 the Department of Ento-
sent not only a new spe- the trove of fossils in two because they decayed times while fishing at a mology at the University
cies, but a new genus — a national parks in British Co- easily, said Briggs. pond. of Arizona.
larger grouping of life — as lumbia, Canada. This latest find, however, A 53-year-old landscap- “And that’s when you
well. “The spines are like minia- was so good that even er is being treated at a have to be especially
It was only 4 inches long ture hooks, although more soft tissue was saved, giv- Tucson hospital after be- alert so you don’t get
and its spines were about gently curved. They were ing scientists a good idea ing attacked by a swarm into trouble.”q
one-third of an inch long. stiff rather than flexible,” about what Capinatator
It feasted on smaller plank- Briggs said in an email. looked like.
ton and shrimp-like crea- “It’s hard to say why there The discovery expands
tures. are so many spines in the scientists’ knowledge of a
It is an ancestor of a fossil example — but pre- “pretty enigmatic” group
group of marine arrow sumably thus armed it was of animals from the Cam-
worms called chaeto- a successful predator.” brian era, said Smithsonian
gnatha that are abundant Capinatator — whose paleobiologist Doug Erwin,
in the world’s oceans. name translates to grasp- who had no role in the
The prehistoric version was ing swimmer — lived 500 research.q