Scientists have uncovered fossils detailing a new huge predatory worm species thought to have hunted in the Earth’s water column more than 518 million years ago.

Researchers from the University of Bristol’s Schools of Earth Sciences and Biological Sciences believe this worm – named Timorebestia, or ‘terror beast’ in Latin – was one of the planet’s earliest carnivorous swimming animals and part of a diverse “dynasty” of predators that until now was unknown to scientists.

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“We have previously known that primitive arthropods were the dominant predators during the Cambrian, such as the bizarre-looking anomalocaridids,” said Jakob Vinther, a senior author on the study. “However, Timorebestia is a distant, but close, relative of living arrow worms, or chaetognaths. These are much smaller ocean predators today that feed on tiny zooplankton.”

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