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The ocean is known for being home to some pretty unique creatures and scientists have recently discovered a very odd looking ancient animal!

A fossil of the species, which has been named Tomlinsonus dimitrii, was found in Ontario, Canada last year.

It's believed to have been part of a now-extinct group of arthropods called marrellomorphs that lived around 450 million years ago.

Today, arthropods include popular species like crabs, lobsters, spiders and centipedes.

One unexpected thing about this latest discovery is that unlike similar fossils, this particular species was found in its original state!

"We didn't expect to find a soft-bodied species at this site," said lead study author Joseph Moysiuk who is a researcher at Toronto's Royal Ontario Museum (ROM).

"When we think of fossils, we typically think of things like dinosaur bones and shells. However, soft-tissue preservation is very rare, and there are only a few sites around the world where soft-bodied organisms have been found," he told Live Science.

The sea creature, which is thought to have been about six centimetres in length, had some very strange features!

It's believed to have had two curved horns coming out from its head which were covered in lots of thin spines.

It also would have had several sets of limbs split into separate parts, including a very long stilt-like pair.

"Underneath the head, there is this amazing pair of limbs that are extremely long and have foot-like projections at the terminal ends, which we think it most likely used to stilt its way across the seafloor," Moysiuk told Live Science.

"It also appears to be blind, since it doesn't have any eyes at all."

The researchers who worked on the study hope the discovery of this latest species will help them find out more about this particular group of arthropods.