Early Bird - Pikaia (Patreon)

Painting of Pikaia gracilens, inspired by the recent Nightwish album. Pikaia being one of the earliest vertabrae ancestors that lived in the cambrian period about 550 million years ago. For a while it was seen as the earliest known and potentially one of the ancestors of all vertabraes, but nowadays that view is coming more into question.
Still amazing to think that these little critters lived in the cambrian oceans over 500 million years ago and over time ended up as basically every animal people think of nowadays. I think a little picture is the least they deserve.

Also just 2k px in size because that's just how small the image is. Didn't want to get carried away into details.