A really, truly, actual Missing Link

A weird tulip-shaped creature discovered fossilized in 500 million-year-old rocks had a feeding system like no other known animal, researchers reported Wednesday.

The animal was a filter feeder, with a tulip-shaped body and a stem that anchored it to the seafloor. Named Siphusauctum gregarium, the creature was about the length of a dinner knife (8 inches, or 20 centimeters) and had a bulbous structure that contained its feeding system and gut.

The fossil was discovered in a rock layer called the Burgess Shale in the Canadian Rockies.

"Recent advances have linked many bizarre Burgess Shale animals as primitive members of many animal groups that are found today, but Siphusauctum defies this trend. We do not know where it fits in relation to other organisms."