Lumpy, hairy, toe-like fossil could reveal the evolution of molluscs

Scientists may now know what the common ancestor of slugs, snails and squid looked like, based on Calvapilosa kroegeri, a 480m-year-old fossil

Lumpy, hairy and with a nail-like horny patch - it sounds like a hobbit's toe. In fact, it's a portrait of what researchers say the common ancestor of slugs, snails and squid might have looked like.

The surmise is based on the discovery of the fossilised remains of a mollusc, thought to have lived about 480 million years ago, which has short spines all over its body and fingernail-like shell over its head which housed a radula - a tongue-like structure found only in molluscs - with more than 125 rows of teeth.