From the Burgess Shale

Hallucigenia! We called you that because we had to find a way to view an animal as wonderful as you. Our drawings showed odd tentacles that sat all down your back – and pairs of pointed legs; and no-one even knew which end was back, and which was front! As you were new, the lack of understanding's fair enough, still begs the question: what were you? We recognise you now when in the shaly slabs we meet, and know your row of back spines from your feet we'd thought were tentacles! Through you our eyes were opened, we can laugh at our mistakes… but stranger, when we touch, my hand still shakes.

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Hallucigenia was a marine creature that lived some 500 million years ago; its remains were fossilised in the Burgess Shale of British Colombia. This fossil when first studied by Dr Simon Conway-Morris of Cambridge University was completely misunderstood and was represented in illustrations in an inverted position. Further study by Dr Conway-Morris led to a greater understanding of the Burgess Shale fauna, and (after 14 years), the righting of Hallucigenia!