Early Ordovician (Arenigian)
Upper Fezouata Formation
Zagora, Draa Valley, Morocco
15mm rare worm-like animal.

Worm. Soft-bodied. Lagerstatten.

We think of worms as all belonging to the same group but the word “worm” is actually a catch-all for a diverse mix of animals representing more than one phylum – more than one ancestry. Some worms have had jaws or armor (composed of sclerites) but most haven’t so they appear in the fossil record only where other soft-bodied organisms are preserved.

Palaeoscolex is a worm known from isolated sclerites at some localities but from occasional body impressions in a few others. It’s known from the Cambrian of Russia, China, North America (Utah). This is a recent find from North Africa extending the chronologic and paleogeographic range of the genus.