![Historical artwork of arthropod classes Merostomata and Trilobita](http://www.imperial.ac.uk/news/image/mainnews2012/18258.jpg)
![](http://www.imperial.ac.uk/assets/news/img/main_image_shd.png)
ESE Palaeontologist David Legg discovers a new 505 million year-old fossil.
ESE Palaeontologist David Legg discovers a new 505 million year-old fossil. The creature, which swam the ancient warm seas of the Cambrian era, was partially named after Johnny Depp due to its three prolonged claws, reminiscent of Edward Scissor Hands.
David’s research has been picked up by a number of newspapers and journals including Nature, The Irish Times, The Wiltshire Times, msn news, OK! Magazine and The Daily Express. This new discovery will help palaeontologists shed more light on the Cambrian era, a period that saw the emergence of nearly all modern-day species in what is known as the Cambrian explosion.
Article text (excluding photos or graphics) available under an Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike Creative Commons license.
Photos and graphics subject to third party copyright used with permission or © Imperial College London.
Reporter
![Marion Ferrat](http://www.imperial.ac.uk/ImageCropToolT4/imageTool/uploaded-images/IMG_20171115_201135--tojpeg_1511974296005_x1.jpg)
Marion Ferrat
Centre for Environmental Policy
![Click to expand or contract Click to expand or contract](http://www.imperial.ac.uk/assets/news/img/expand_arrow.png)
Contact details
Email: press.office@imperial.ac.uk
Show all stories by this author