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Volume 480 Issue 7376, 8 December 2011

The metre-long swimming invertebrate Anomalocaris was the top predator in the Cambrian ocean more than 500 million years ago. Recent discoveries of fly-like compound eyes attributable to this creature confirm suggestions that it is related to the arthropods — jointed-limbed creatures such as insects, crustaceans and trilobites — and show that compound eyes evolved before hardened exoskeletons. The superbly preserved fossils from South Australia show that Anomalocaris had exceptional vision. Its compound eyes are among the largest and most acute to have ever existed; each eye is up to 3 centimetres long and contains more than 16,000 lenses. The existence of highly visual hunters during the Cambrian would have accelerated the pace of the predator–prey 'arms race' then under way. Illustration: Katrina Kenny/University of Adelaide.

Volume 480 Issue 7376

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  • Compounds containing the trifluoromethyl group have many uses, but their isomers must often be made using different multi-step routes. Two studies now show how several isomers can be made by the same route. See Letter p.224

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Nature Outlook

  • Our centuries-old battle against influenza occasionally erupts into mass death — the 1918 pandemic alone killed at least 50 million people. What makes this virus such a tough foe is its ability to mutate so that vaccines and drugs quickly become obsolete. Can new research offer hope for defeating this pathogen for good?

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