By: Alana Zhang

This tiny worm, called Youti Yuanshi, has lived half a billion years ago, and is often described as “almost impossible to find”. The chances of spotting this worm were close to none, evident as one of the scientist’s said that their jaw dropped when was got uncovered. The baby of these insects (larva) was unearthed in China with its internal organs almost completely intact. There also was a doctor named Dr Martin Smith, who wrote a research paper about the larvae, and described the baby worm as “something special”, saying that finding these fossils is practically impossible.

Youti yuanshi would have been alive and moving 520 million years ago. Dr Smith said there was another exciting reason about why the group of scientists were very excited: “The exciting thing about this fossil is that you can see all sorts of internal details.” Luckily, this worm’s brain and nervous system is still attached to the body of the worm, even though it has been a very long time since it once roamed the earth.

These kinds of insects are an early relative of arthropods (a group of creatures including insects, spiders, crabs and centipedes). This tiny worm is very small, almost four millimeters long, which is smaller than a grain of rice. This discovery was led by the researchers at Durham University, who uncovered the incredibly rare and detailed fossil. This was found in the Yuanshan Formation, that is in China.

Resource: https://www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/articles/c903zxvq19lo