Very unlikely that this critter predates the evolution of the eye. The earliest known trilobites appear to have eyes and they are middle Early Cambrian in age. The most recent common ancestor of crustaceans and trilobites is at its youngest early Early Cambrian but probably older as the two groups have some really fundamental differences. Also, this looks like a specialized form and not an ancient (simple) form.
As an aside, the original scientific paper describing the hairy lobster used both morphologic and molecular data.
From what I have read the DNA sequencing labs really are overworked, but it would be great if they had some spare time for basic systematics research.
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Very unlikely that this critter predates the evolution of the eye. The earliest known trilobites appear to have eyes and they are middle Early Cambrian in age. The most recent common ancestor of crustaceans and trilobites is at its youngest early Early Cambrian but probably older as the two groups have some really fundamental differences. Also, this looks like a specialized form and not an ancient (simple) form. As an aside, the original scientific paper describing the hairy lobster used both morphologic and molecular data. From what I have read the DNA sequencing labs really are overworked, but it would be great if they had some spare time for basic systematics research.