Giant prehistoric lobster was 'one of the largest animals alive'
New study reveals the strange two-metre-long prehistoric shellfish lived 480 million years ago
A 480-million-year-old relative of the lobster, cockroach and tarantula was a two-metre-long sea monster which snared food with spine-covered protrusions on its head, researchers said.
The bizarre creature used spiny appendages to filter morsels from ocean water, said a study in the journal Nature.
The technique is similar to the method used by modern-day ocean giants like baleen whales. But the bizarre beast also shared features with today's arthropods, the family of invertebrates with exoskeletons that includes spiders, insects, crustaceans and centipedes.
It had pairs of "flaps", possibly for swimming, along the length of its segmented body.
Aegirocassis benmoulae is the earliest giant filter feeder yet discovered.
"This would have been one of the largest animals alive at the time," said study co-author Allison Daley of Oxford University.
The creature, which lived in the Palaeozoic Era, is named after sea god Aegir from Norse mythology, the Latin for helmet (cassis) and a Moroccan fossil hunter, Mohamed Ben Moula, who discovered its remains.