Question 1

How do you say Dinomischus?

Accepted Answer

Dinomischus is pronounced dy-no-MIS-kus. Break it into four parts: DY, like the word 'dye,' then no, then MIS like the word 'miss,' then kus rhyming with 'bus.' The stress lands on the MIS syllable, so say it with a little extra punch there: dy-no-MIS-kus. A good trick is to say 'dino' like the word dinosaur, then add 'MIS-kus' right after it.

Question 2

What does Dinomischus mean?

Accepted Answer

The name Dinomischus comes from two Greek words. 'Deinos' means terrible or wondrous, and it is the same root that gives us the word dinosaur. 'Miskhos' is the Greek word for a stalk or stem. So Dinomischus basically means 'terrible stalk' or 'wondrous stalked creature.' Paleontologist Simon Conway Morris chose this name in 1977 because the most striking thing about this animal is the long stalk that anchored it to the Cambrian seafloor.

Question 3

What kind of animal was Dinomischus?

Accepted Answer

That is actually one of the biggest mysteries in Cambrian paleontology. For a long time, scientists had no idea what group Dinomischus belonged to, and it was placed in a catch-all category called 'problematica' for animals too weird to classify. Recent studies now suggest it may be a stem-group ctenophore, meaning it could be a very ancient relative of today's comb jellies, those shimmering jellyfish-like creatures you might see at an aquarium. If that is correct, Dinomischus is one of the oldest known relatives of comb jellies, giving us a glimpse of what they looked like more than 500 million years ago.

Question 4

What did Dinomischus eat?

Accepted Answer

Dinomischus was almost certainly a filter feeder. It sat anchored to the seafloor on its long stalk, with a cup-shaped body at the top fringed with tentacle-like structures that could catch tiny food particles drifting past in ocean currents. The Cambrian seas were full of microscopic organic matter, bacteria, and tiny plankton-like organisms that would have made a perfectly good meal for a small sessile creature like Dinomischus. This feeding strategy, waiting for food to come to you instead of chasing it, is used by many modern animals including sea lilies and barnacles.

Question 5

Where was Dinomischus found?

Accepted Answer

Dinomischus fossils have been found in two countries: Canada and China. In Canada, specimens come from the famous Burgess Shale in British Columbia, one of the most important fossil sites on Earth. In China, fossils have been recovered from the Maotianshan Shales and the Kaili Formation, both of which preserve incredible soft-bodied Cambrian animals in fine detail. Finding Dinomischus on two different continents suggests it was a fairly widespread creature in Cambrian oceans, not just a rare local quirk.

Question 6

When did Dinomischus live?

Accepted Answer

Dinomischus lived during the Cambrian period, with fossil evidence spanning from approximately 516 million years ago to around 497 million years ago. That is almost 20 million years of existence, which is actually a pretty long run for any animal group. To put that in perspective, modern humans have only existed for about 300,000 years. Dinomischus was alive at one of the most important moments in the history of life, right in the middle of the Cambrian explosion when complex animal life first diversified explosively.

Question 7

How big was Dinomischus?

Accepted Answer

Dinomischus was a small creature by most standards. Based on fossils from the Burgess Shale and Chinese sites, the whole animal including its stalk and cup was probably only a few centimeters tall, roughly the size of your thumb or a small grape. That small size made it easy to overlook on the seafloor, but it was perfectly suited to its lifestyle of anchoring in place and filter feeding from the passing currents.

Question 8

Who discovered Dinomischus?

Accepted Answer

Dinomischus was formally described and named by paleontologist Simon Conway Morris in 1977, based on specimens from the Burgess Shale in British Columbia, Canada. Conway Morris is one of the most celebrated scientists in the study of Cambrian life, and he described many of the bizarre soft-bodied animals found in the Burgess Shale. The Burgess Shale itself was discovered by Charles Doolittle Walcott in 1909, so the rock containing Dinomischus fossils had been known for decades before Conway Morris gave the creature its official scientific name and description.

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