Hallucigenia sparsa

A terrifying hallucination

Hallucigenia is such a peculiar animal that even the name of its genus (Hallucigenia) means “Hallucination”. The name of its species (sparsa), is in reference to “Canadia sparsa”, a name originally given by “Charles Walcott”. In the book “A Wonderful Life”, it is mentioned as one of “The Five Oddities of Simon Conway Morris”:

— Nectocaria pteryx

— Odontogriphus omalus

— Dinomischus isolatus

— Amiskwia sagittiformis

— Hallucigenia sparsa

Note: Amiskwia was originally described by Charles Walcott (same Hallucigenia); however, it was Simon Morrys who described it in a new unknown edge.

The aforementioned, Charles Walcott, thought that Hallucigenia was an annelid worm, but it was Morrys who studied it in more detail. Some experts believed that the Hallucigenia fossil was of a larger animal, similar to Anomalocaris.

Hallucigenia is a strange animal that is no more than 3 cm long, with 7 pairs of legs and 2 rows of parallel spines. Their diet is speculated to have been based on waste such as the decomposition of dead creatures or the soft tissues of sponges. An enigma of the animal is that it is unknown which side is the head and which is the tail, some scientists even believe that the round area was not part of its anatomy, but a spot. All in all, a rather strange (but fascinating) creature to study. Misconceptions have also been made about the fossil, such as the suggestion that Hallucigenia could walk on its spines.

Hallucigenia is thought to have roamed the seabed while co-existing with other Cambrian creatures mentioned above: Dinomischus, Amiskwia; along with others that have already been discussed in previous blogs: Opabinia, Anomalocaris, Diania. For its part, Hallucigenia competence is believed to be based on obtaining waste as food.

Hallucigenia has been quite popular in recent days thanks to the anime “Shingeki no kyojin” (Attack on Titan), although it is not explicitly mentioned in the Japanese series, fans of the series have linked this animal with the origin of the titans.

However, Hallucigenia has participated in other series more explicitly, one of these has been the series “Tenchi Souzou Disgn-Bu” where a brief explanation about the animal is even offered in episode 3 of the anime.

— Gould, S. J., & Shale, B. (1994). La vida maravillosa. RBA.

— Parker, S. (2016). Evolución Toda la Historia (1.a ed.). BLUME.

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