Having found which way is up...

[kayshapero]

Further discoveries seem to have revealed which end was which... And like you might expect Hallucigenia is even weirder. :)

Face of bizarre sea creature Hallucigenia revealed
By Rebecca Morelle
Science Correspondent, BBC News
25 June 2015
From the section Science & Environment

Scientists finally have a complete picture of what one of nature's most bizarre animals looked like.

The tiny sea creature - Hallucigenia - lived 500 million years ago, but all fossils appeared to be without heads.

New specimens unearthed in Canada have revealed the missing part, revealing its strange face for the first time.

Dr Martin Smith, from the University of Cambridge, said: "It looks completely surreal. It is like something from another world."

(more)

There are a lot of photos of fossils as well as other artist reconstructions (like the above) in the article itself, along with a link to the Nature article (which I'm also linking here Just Because).

Comments

[cloudchaser-s.livejournal.com]

I can see why they named it that. Looks like a hallucination

[kayshapero]

Yeppers, from what I've heard that was exactly why. It's an example of why the Burgess Shales were such a great find. Hallucigenia was possibly the weirdest of the lot, mostly because without any idea of which way was up, or what way was in front, or even if it wasn't a small part of a far larger animal that came off. But there were a lot of interesting critters to be described.