Anomalocaris was the great white shark of its day, cruising the shallow Cambrian seas in search of prey 500 million years ago.
It could grow to the length of a modern human, was fast, had good eyesight and possessed a large circular mouth made from razor-sharp plates.
We know from its fossilised faeces that Anomalocaris hunted trilobites and primitive shrimp-like animals. It would probably have held its victims in its two huge front appendages and then crushed them, passing the pieces to its mouth.
As the first top apex predator, Anomalocaris may have been responsible for an early evolutionary arms race, forcing other animals to develop hard shells for protection.
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