According to researchers, lobsters, butterflies and spiders are living relatives of a recently recognized species named Yawunik kootenayi. Yawunik kootenayi is a marine creature having two pairs of eyes and prominent grasping appendages.

The fossil has been identified by a team of researchers at the University of Toronto and the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto. Cedric Aria, a PhD candidate in U of T’s Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology said that this creature increasing their point of view on the anatomy and predatory habits of the initial arthropods. Arthropods are the group to which spiders and lobsters belong.

“It has the signature features of an arthropod with its external skeleton, segmented physique and jointed appendages, but lacks particular sophisticated traits present in groups that survived till the present day. We say that it belongs to the ‘stem’ of arthropods”, said Cedric Aria.

According to Aria, as opposed to insects or crustaceans, Yawunik did not have extra appendages in the head that had been particularly modified to process food. It is known by the researchers that the larvae of particular crustaceans can make use of their antennae to each swim and gather meals.

As per the researchers, a significant active predator like a mantis shrimp has its sensory and grasping functions that are split up in between appendages. Yawunik and its relatives help the researchers to know more about the situation existing just before such a division of tasks amongst components of the organism took location.

It has been notified that the new figure is named to give tribute to the Ktunaxa Men and Women. They both were inhabitants of the Kootenay region where the Marble Canyon district was found.