Fauxsil news

In a 1991 paper, Ramsköld and Hou re-assigned the pre-Cambrian fossil Hallucigenia sparsa to a group of 'armoured lobopods' that had evolved defensive plates and spines. They argued that the sharp bits in the fossils were paired, upward-pointing spines.

This reversed the original reconstructions in which the spikes were interpreted as stilt-like legs.

The re-interpretation was a great relief for everyone who thought the earlier version was a bit silly and hard to animate H. sparsa's movements convincingly so that it could chase Ann Althouse across the screen.