You may know them as lancelet and in some part of China they are considered a fishing industry. These small marine animals resemble small fishes with out eyes and spend most of their time buried in the ocean's bottom (Britanica). The lancelet are representatives of the subphylum Cephalochordata, sister group of craniates.
So why know about these small creature that live at the bottom of the sea? Well, they provide indications about the origins of the vertebrates. These traces are found in their genomes that holds clues to evolution. Clues such as how vertebrates have employed old genes for new functions(Wikipedia).
see a pic...
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