Researchers discover the 20-million-year-old lair of predatory worm

New findings suggest large predatory worms roamed the ocean floor more than 20 million years ago.

A team of Simon Fraser University researchers have reconstructed a trace fossil in Taiwan, which they identified as a burrow for an ancestor of the Bobbit worm.

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After researchers investigated 319 specimens preserved more than 20 million years ago in northeast Taiwan, a morphological model of this trace fossil was constructed.

Researchers contacted marine biologists, marine photographers and aquarium keepers to compare the burrows to biological analogs.

The team reached the conclusion the trace fossil was produced by giant, ambush-predatory worms.

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Predatory worms such as the Bobbit are known to hide in their burrows, until they explode upwards grabbing unsuspecting prey with a snap of their jaws.

The still-living prey are then pulled into the sediment for consumption.

Their bodies comprise mainly soft tissue, which leaves an incomplete fossil record and presents challenges for researchers.

According to the report, "virtually nothing is known about their burrows and and behaviour beneath the seafloor".