The Burgess Shale

Media: Drawing

Zacanthoides romingeri

Zacanthoides romingeri (figure 3) illustrated by Rominger (1887) as Embolimus spinosa.

Taxonomy:

Kingdom: Drawing
Phylum: Drawing
Higher Taxonomic assignment: Trilobita (Order: Corynexochida)
Species name: Zacanthoides romingeri
Remarks:

Trilobites are extinct euarthropods, probably stem lineage representatives of the Mandibulata, which includes crustaceans, myriapods, and hexapods (Scholtz and Edgecombe, 2006).

Described by: Rominger
Description date: 1887
Etymology:

Zacanthoides – probably from the Greek z(a), “very,” and akanthion, “thistle” or “porcupine” or “hedgehog,” and oides, “resembling;” thus, very thistle- or porcupine-like.

romingeri – after Carl Rominger, a Michigan paleontologist who in 1887 published the first descriptions of trilobites from Mount Stephen.

Type Specimens: Type status under review – UMMP 4871 (2 specimens), University of Michigan Museum of Paleontology, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA.
Other species:

Burgess Shale and vicinity: Zacanthoides sexdentatus, Z. submuticus, Z. longipygus, Z. planifrons, Z. divergens, all from older and younger Middle Cambrian rocks on Mount Stephen, Mount Odaray, and Park Mountain (Rasetti, 1951).

Other deposits: other species elsewhere in North America.

Age & Localities:

Age:
Middle Cambrian, Bathyuriscus-Elrathina Zone (approximately 505 million years ago).
Principal localities:

The Trilobite Beds on Mount Stephen.

History of Research:

Brief history of research:

In 1887 Carl Rominger published an engraving of a nearly complete and markedly spiny trilobite and named it Embolimus spinosa. In 1908 Charles Walcott introduced the combination Zacanthoides spinosus for the Mount Stephen species and for a similar trilobite from Nevada. The next change came in 1942, when Charles Resser at the United States National Museum asserted that the Mount Stephen species was sufficiently distinct that it required a new name. Resser chose to honour the man who first formally described many of the common Mount Stephen trilobites, and Zacanthoides romingeri remains the combination in use today.

Description:

Morphology:

Hard parts: adult dorsal exoskeletons can reach up to 6 cm in length, tapering back from a large crescentic cephalon through a thorax of nine segments, to a relatively small rounded-triangular pygidium with long marginal spines.

The wide free cheeks bear strong genal spines; short, thorn-like intragenal spines mark the posterior corners of the fixed cheeks. The glabella is long and narrow, slightly expanded forwards. There are four pairs of lateral glabellar furrows; the anterior two pairs are weaker and angled to the front, the stronger posterior two are angled back. Very long narrow eyes that bow strongly outward are located far back on the cephalon. The occipital ring extends rearward into a strong, broad-based spine. Long, blade-shaped terminal spines on the wide pleurae curve progressively more backwards. A slender needle-like spine arises from the axial ring of the eighth thoracic segment. There are four pygidial axial rings; five pairs of marginal spines, each successively shorter, are directed rearwards and extend beyond the tip of the pygidium.

Unmineralized anatomy: not known.

Abundance:

Zacanthoides romingeri is moderately abundant at the Mount Stephen Trilobite Beds but absent from Fossil Ridge. Complete trilobites with the free cheeks in place are very scarce, and this species is mostly found as disarticulated sclerites. Its distinctive characteristics, however, usually allow even isolated pieces to be readily identified.

Maximum Size:
60 mm

Ecology:

Life habits: Drawing
Feeding strategies: Drawing
Ecological Interpretations:

Zacanthoides romingeri adults very likely walked along the sea bed. The overall spinosity of this species may have served as a deterrent to predators, or possibly helped to break up the visual outline of the animal, making it harder to see on the sea floor (Rudkin, 1996).

References:

RASETTI, F. 1951. Middle Cambrian stratigraphy and faunas of the Canadian Rocky Mountains. Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections, 116 (5): 1-277.

RESSER, C. E. 1942. Fifth contribution to nomenclature of Cambrian trilobites. Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections, 101 (15): 1-58.

ROMINGER, C. 1887. Description of primordial fossils from Mount Stephens, N. W. Territory of Canada. Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, 1887: 12-19.

RUDKIN, D. M. 1996. The Trilobite Beds of Mount Stephen, Yoho National Park, p. 59-68. In R. Ludvigsen (ed.), Life in Stone – A Natural History of British Columbia’s Fossils. UBC Press, Vancouver.

RUDKIN, D. M. 2009. The Mount Stephen Trilobite Beds, p. 90-102. In J.-B. Caron and D. Rudkin (eds.), A Burgess Shale Primer – History, Geology, and Research Highlights. The Burgess Shale Consortium, Toronto.

SCHOLTZ, G. AND G. D. EDGECOMBE. 2006. The evolution of arthropod heads: reconciling morphological, developmental and palaeontological evidence. Development Genes and Evolution, 216: 395-415.

WALCOTT, C. D. 1888. Cambrian fossils from Mount Stephens, Northwest Territory of Canada. American Journal of Science, Series 3, 36: 163-166.

WALCOTT, C. D. 1908. Mount Stephen rocks and fossils. Canadian Alpine Journal, 1:232-248.

Other Links:

http://www.trilobites.info/ordcorynexochida.htm

Kootenia burgessensis

Kootenia burgessensis (ROM 60761). Disarticulated specimen. Specimen dry – direct light (left) and coated with ammonium chloride sublimate to show details (right). Specimen length = 44 mm. Walcott Quarry.

© Royal Ontario Museum. Photo: Jean-Bernard Caron

Taxonomy:

Kingdom: Drawing
Phylum: Drawing
Higher Taxonomic assignment: Trilobita (Order: Corynexochida)
Species name: Kootenia burgessensis
Remarks:

Trilobites are extinct euarthropods, probably stem lineage representatives of the Mandibulata, which includes crustaceans, myriapods, and hexapods (Scholtz and Edgecombe, 2006).

Described by: Resser
Description date: 1942
Etymology:

Kootenia – unspecified, but almost certainly for the Kootenay region of southeast British Columbia, or the derivative Kootenay River, both based upon the Ktunaxa or Kutenai First Nation of the same area.

burgessensis – from the Burgess Shale.

Type Specimens: Holotype (K. burgessensis) – USNM65511 in the National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC, USA (Resser, 1942); Type status under review – (K. dawsoni), University of Michigan Museum of Paleontology, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA.
Other species:

Burgess Shale and vicinity: Kootenia dawsoni; Olenoides serratus. (Species of Kootenia are no longer considered different enough from those in Olenoides to warrant placement in a separate genus, but Kootenia is retained here for ease of reference to historical literature).

Other deposits: other species attributed to Kootenia are widespread in the Cambrian of North America, and have been recorded in Greenland, China, Australia, and elsewhere.

Age & Localities:

Age:
Middle Cambrian, Bathyuriscus –Elrathina Zone (approximately 505 million years ago).
Principal localities:

The Walcott Quarry on Fossil Ridge, and nearby localities on Mount Field; K. dawsoni is known from the Trilobite Beds and elsewhere on Mount Stephen.

History of Research:

Brief history of research:

Kootenia burgessensis was established by Charles Resser based on material Walcott included in K. dawsoni. Kootenia originally appeared as a subgenus of Bathyuriscus in Walcott’s 1889 paper revising many of Rominger’s Mount Stephen trilobite identifications. Walcott named B. (Kootenia) dawsoni after G. M. Dawson of the Geological Survey of Canada as a replacement for what Rominger had illustrated as Bathyurus (?) in 1887.

In 1908, Walcott followed G. F. Matthew (1899) in calling this Dorypyge (Kootenia) dawsoni, but regarded Kootenia as a full genus in 1918. Harry Whittington included Kootenia burgessensis in his 1975 redescription of Burgess Shale appendage-bearing trilobites, illustrating a single specimen showing biramous thoracic limbs on one side. In 1994, Melzak and Westrop concluded that Kootenia could not be consistently discriminated from Olenoides using traditional characters of the spinose pygidium.

Description:

Morphology:

Hard parts: adult dorsal exoskeletons may reach 5.5 cm in length and are broadly oval in outline. In most general features, Kootenia burgessensis resembles the co-occurring Olenoides serratus, with a semi-circular cephalon bearing genal spines, a thorax of seven segments, and a semi-circular pygidium. In Kootenia, however, spines on the thoracic pleural tips and shorter and blunter, as are those around the margin of the pygidium; interpleural furrows on the pygidium are absent to very faint.

Unmineralized anatomy: based on evidence from just a few specimens, Kootenia burgessensis, like Olenoides serratus, had a pair of flexible, multi-jointed “antennae” followed by three pairs of biramous limbs on the cephalon. Pairs of similar biramous appendages were attached under each thoracic segment, with a smaller number under the pygidium. No specimens, however, show any evidence of posterior antenna-like cerci as in Olenoides.

Abundance:

Kootenia burgessensis is moderately common in the Walcott Quarry section on Fossil Ridge, as is Kootenia dawsoni in the Mount Stephen Trilobite Beds.

Maximum Size:
55 mm

Ecology:

Life habits: Drawing
Feeding strategies: Drawing
Ecological Interpretations:

Adult Kootenia burgessensis walked along the sea bed, possibly digging shallow furrows to locate small soft-bodied and weakly-shelled animals or carcasses. Kootenia could probably swim just above the sea bed for short distances. Tiny larvae and early juveniles probably swam and drifted in the water column.

References:

MATTHEW, G. F. 1899. Studies on Cambrian faunas, No. 3. Upper Cambrian Fauna of Mount Stephen, British Columbia: The trilobites and worms. Transactions of the Royal Society of Canada, Series 2, Vol. 5, Section IV:39-66.

MELZAK, A. AND S. R. WESTROP. 1994. Mid-Cambrian (Marjuman) trilobites from the Pika Formation, southern Canadian Rocky Mountains, Alberta. Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences, 31:969-985.

RASETTI, F. 1951. Middle Cambrian stratigraphy and faunas of the Canadian Rocky Mountains. Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections, 116 (5): 1-277.

RESSER, C. E. 1942. Fifth contribution to nomenclature of Cambrian trilobites. Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections, 101 (15): 1-58.

RESSER, C. E. 1942. Fifth contribution to nomenclature of Cambrian trilobites. Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections, 101 (15): 1-58.

ROMINGER, C. 1887. Description of primordial fossils from Mount Stephens, N. W. Territory of Canada. Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, 1887: 12-19.

SCHOLTZ, G. AND G. D. EDGECOMBE. 2006. The evolution of arthropod heads: reconciling morphological, developmental and palaeontological evidence. Development Genes and Evolution, 216: 395-415.

WALCOTT, C. 1889. Description of new genera and species of fossils from the Middle Cambrian. United States National Museum, Proceedings for 1888:441-446.

WALCOTT, C. D. 1908. Mount Stephen rocks and fossils. Canadian Alpine Journal, 1: 232-248.

WALCOTT, C. 1918. Cambrian Geology and Paleontology IV. Appendages of trilobites. Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections, 67(4): 115-216.

WHITTINGTON, H. B. 1975. Trilobites with appendages from the Middle Cambrian, Burgess Shale, British Columbia. Fossils and Strata, No. 4: 97-136.

Other Links:

http://www.trilobites.info/ordcorynexochida.htm

Hurdia victoria

3D animation of Hurdia victoria.

Animation by Phlesch Bubble © Royal Ontario Museum

Taxonomy:

Kingdom: Drawing
Phylum: Drawing
Higher Taxonomic assignment: Dinocarida (Order: Radiodonta, stem group arthropods)
Species name: Hurdia victoria
Remarks:

Hurdia is an anomalocaridid, and is usually considered to represent either a basal stem-lineage euarthropod (e.g. Daley et al., 2009), a member of the crown-group arthropods (e.g. Chen et al., 2004), or a sister group to the arthropods (Hou et al., 2006).

Described by: Walcott
Description date: 1912
Etymology:

Hurdia – from Mount Hurd (2,993 m), a mountain northeast of the now defunct Leanchoil railway station on the Canadian Pacific Railway in Yoho National Park. The peak was named by Tom Wilson for Major M. F. Hurd, a CPR survey engineer who explored the Rocky Mountain passes starting in the 1870s.

victoria – unspecified; perhaps from Mount Victoria (3,464 m) on the border of Yoho and Banff National Parks, named by Norman Collie in 1897 to honour Queen Victoria.

Type Specimens: Lectotypes –USNM57718 (H. victoria) andUSNM57721 (H. triangulata) in the National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC, USA.
Other species:

Burgess Shale and vicinity: Hurdia triangulata.

Other deposits: Potentially other species are represented in Utah (Wheeler Formation) (Briggs et al., 2008), the Jince Formation in the Czech Republic (Chlupáč and Kordule 2002) and the Shuijingtuo Formation in Hubei Province, China (Cui and Huo, 1990) and possibly Nevada (Lieberman, 2003).

Age & Localities:

Age:
Middle Cambrian, Bathyuriscus-Elrathina Zone (approximately 505 million years ago).
Principal localities:

The Walcott, Raymond and Collins Quarries on Fossil Ridge. Also known from other localities on Mount Field, Mount Stephen – Tulip Beds (S7) – and near Stanley Glacier.

History of Research:

Brief history of research:

Hurdia is a relative newcomer to the anomalocaridids. Although isolated parts of its body were first identified in the early 1900s, no affinity could be determined until the description of whole body specimens by Daley et al. in 2009. Hurdia victoria was the name originally given to an isolated triangular carapace that Walcott (1912) suggested belonged to an unknown arthropod. Proboscicaris, another isolated carapace, was originally described as a phyllopod arthropod (Rolfe, 1962). Hurdia’s frontal appendages were first described by Walcott (1911a) as the feeding limbs of Sidneyia, but were later removed from this genus and referred to as “Appendage F” with unknown affinity (Briggs, 1979).

Like other anomalocaridids, the mouth parts were first described as the jellyfish Peytoia nathorsti (Walcott, 1911b). When Whittington and Briggs (1985) discovered the first whole body specimens of Anomalocaris, the mouth part identity of Peytoia was recognized and “Appendage F” was determined to be the frontal appendage of Anomalocaris nathorsti (later renamed Laggania cambria by Collins (1996). When describing Anomalocaris, Whittington and Briggs (1985) also figured a mouth apparatus with extra rows of teeth.

After two decades of collecting at the Burgess Shale, Desmond Collins from the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) discovered that this extra-spiny mouth part actually belonged to a third type of anomalocaridid, which also had an “Appendage F” pair and a frontal carapace structure consisting of one Hurdia carapace and two Proboscicaris carapaces (Daley et al., 2009). This is the Hurdia animal. ROM specimens of “Appendage F” showed that it has three distinct morphologies, two of which belongs to the Hurdia animal (known from two species, victoria and triangulata) and one to Laggania cambria.

Description:

Morphology:

Hurdia has a bilaterally symmetrical body that is broadly divisible into two sections of equal lengths. The anterior region is a complex of non-mineralized carapaces consisting of one dorsal triangular H-element (previously called Hurdia) and two lateral subrectangular P-elements (or Proboscicaris). This complex is hollow and open ventrally. It attaches near the anterior margin of the head and protrudes forward. The surfaces of the H- and P-elements are covered in a distinctive polygonal pattern similar to that seen on Tuzoia carapaces. A pair of oval eyes on short stalks protrudes upwards through dorsal-lateral notches in the overlapping posterior corners of the H- and P-elements.

Mouth parts are on the ventral surface of the head, and consist of a circlet of 32 tapering and overlapping plates, 4 large and 28 small, with spines lining the square inner opening. Within the central opening are up to five inner rows of toothed plates. A pair of appendages flanks the mouth part, each with nine thin segments with short dorsal spines and seven elongated ventral spines. The posterior half of the body consists of a series of seven to nine reversely imbricated lateral lobes that extend ventrally into triangular flaps. Dorsal surfaces of the lateral lobes are covered in a series of elongated blades interpreted to be gill structures. The body terminates abruptly in two rounded lobes, and lacks a tailfan. Complete specimens are up to 20 cm in length, although disarticulated fragments may suggest a larger body size up to 50 cm long. Hurdia triangulata differs from Hurdia victoria by having a wider and shorter H-element.

Abundance:

Over 700 specimens of Hurdia have been identified, most of which are disarticulated. Hurdia is found in all Burgess Shale quarries on Fossil Ridge, and is particularly abundant in Raymond Quarry, where it makes up almost 1% of the community (240 specimens). A total of 7 complete body specimens exist.

Maximum Size:
500 mm

Ecology:

Life habits: Drawing
Feeding strategies: Drawing
Ecological Interpretations:

Hurdia was likely nektonic, since there are no trunk limbs for walking, and the numerous gills suggest an active swimming lifestyle. The animal propelled itself through the water column by waving its lateral lobes and gills. The large eyes, prominent appendages and spiny mouth parts suggest that Hurdia actively sought out moving prey items. Although the function of the frontal carapace remains unknown, it may have played a role in prey capture. If Hurdia were swimming just above the sea floor, it could have used the tip of its frontal carapace to stir up sediment and dislodge prey items, which would then be trapped beneath its frontal carapace. Prey items were funneled towards the mouth by a sweeping motion of the long ventral blades of the frontal appendages, which formed a rigid net or cage. Like other anomalocaridids, Hurdia likely ingested soft-bodied prey.

References:

BRIGGS, D. E. G. 1979. Anomalocaris, the largest known Cambrian arthropod. Palaeontology, 22: 631-663.

BRIGGS, D. E. G., B. S. LIEBERMAN, J. R. HENDRICK, S. L. HALGEDAHL AND R. D. JARRARD. 2008. Middle Cambrian arthropods from Utah. Journal of Paleontology, 82: 238-254.

CHEN, J. Y., D. WALOSZEK AND A. MAAS. 2004. A new ‘great-appendage’ arthropod from the Lower Cambrian of China and homology of chelicerate chelicerae and raptorial antero-ventral appendages. Lethaia, 37: 3-20.

CHLUPÁČ, I. AND V. KORDULE. 2002. Arthropods of Burgess Shale type from the Middle Cambrian of Bohemia (Czech Republic). Bulletin of the Czech Geological Survey, 77: 167-182.

COLLINS, D. 1996. The “evolution” of Anomalocaris and its classification in the arthropod class Dinocarida (nov) and order Radiodonta (nov). Journal of Paleontology, 70: 280-293.

CUI, Z. AND S. HUO. 1990. New discoveries of Lower Cambrian crustacean fossils from Western Hubei. Acta Palaeontologica Sinica, 29: 321-330.

DALEY, A. C., G. E. BUDD, J. B. CARON, G. D. EDGECOMBE AND D. COLLINS. 2009. The Burgess Shale anomalocaridid Hurdia and its significance for early euarthropod evolution. Science, 323: 1597-1600.

HOU, X., J. BERGSTRÖM AND P. AHLBERG. 1995. Anomalocaris and other large animals in the Lower Cambrian Chengjiang fauna of Southwest China. GFF, 117: 163-183.

HOU, X., J. BERGSTRÖM AND Y. JIE. 2006. Distinguishing anomalocaridids from arthropods and priapulids. Geological Journal, 41: 259-269.

LIEBERMAN, B. S. 2003. A new soft-bodied fauna: The Pioche Formation of Nevada. Journal of Paleontology, 77: 674-690.

ROLFE, W. D. I. 1962. Two new arthropod carapaces from the Burgess Shale (Middle Cambrian) of Canada. Breviora Museum of Comparative Zoology, 60: 1-9.

WALCOTT, C. D. 1911a. Middle Cambrian Merostomata. Cambrian Geology and Paleontology II. Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections, 57: 17-40.

WALCOTT, C. D. 1911b. Middle Cambrian holothurians and medusae. Cambrian Geology and Paleontology II. Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections, 57: 41-68.

WALCOTT, C. D. 1912. Middle Cambrian Branchiopoda, Malacostraca, Trilobita and Merostomata. Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections, 57: 145-228.

WHITTINGTON, H. B. AND D. E. G. BRIGGS. 1985. The largest Cambrian animal, Anomalocaris, Burgess Shale, British-Columbia. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London Series B-Biological Sciences, 309: 569-609.

Other Links:

http://www.sciencemag.org/content/323/5921/1597.abstract

Elrathina cordillerae

Elrathina cordillerae (ROM 53273). Complete individual; a presumed carcass with free cheeks in place (coated with ammonium chloride sublimate to show details). Specimen length = 24 mm. Specimen dry – direct light. Mount Stephen Trilobite Beds on Mount Stephen.

© Royal Ontario Museum. Photo: Jean-Bernard Caron

Taxonomy:

Kingdom: Drawing
Phylum: Drawing
Higher Taxonomic assignment: Trilobita (Order: Ptychopariida)
Species name: Elrathina cordillerae
Remarks:

Trilobites are extinct euarthropods, probably stem lineage representatives of the Mandibulata, which includes crustaceans, myriapods, and hexapods (Scholtz and Edgecombe, 2006).

Described by: Rominger
Description date: 1887
Etymology:

Elrathina – unspecified.

cordillerae – in reference to the Western Cordillera (Canadian Rocky Mountain ranges), derived from the Spanish cordilla, the diminutive of cuerda, meaning “cord.”

Type Specimens: Type status under review – UMMP 4883 (6 specimens), University of Michigan Museum of Paleontology, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA.
Other species:

Burgess Shale and vicinity: Elrathina parallela, E. brevifrons, E. spinifera, and E. marginalis have been described from similar stratigraphic horizons at nearby sites on Mount Field, Mount Stephen, and Mount Odaray.

Other deposits: Other species of Elrathina have been reported from the Cambrian of North America and Greenland.

Age & Localities:

Age:
Middle Cambrian, Bathyuriscus–Elrathina Zone (approximately 505 million years ago).
Principal localities:

The Walcott Quarry on Fossil Ridge. The Trilobite Beds and additional localities on Mount Stephen.

History of Research:

Brief history of research:

E. cordillerae was originally described under the genus name Conocephalites in Rominger’s 1887 publication on trilobites from Mount Stephen. In 1888 Walcott reallocated the species to Ptychoparia where it remained until Charles Resser, Walcott’s former assistant at the United States National Museum, established the new replacement genus Elrathina (Resser, 1937). Other workers have subsequently suggested that Elrathina is indistinguishable from Ptychoparella (see Blaker and Peel, 1997).

Species of Elrathina, along with those of the corynexochid Bathyuriscus, were found to be very abundant in a narrow interval of Middle Cambrian rocks throughout western North America, forming the basis of the Bathyuriscus-Elrathina Zone erected by Charles Deiss (1940).

Description:

Morphology:

Hard parts: adult dorsal exoskeletons average about 2 cm long. The semicircular cephalon is about one-third the length of the entire dorsal shield, bordered by a well-defined narrow rim, and with rounded genal angles. Weak transverse eye ridges extend to the small eyes, which are located just forward of cephalic mid-length. The slightly anteriorly narrowing glabella is rounded in front and exhibits three pairs of shallow lateral furrows; the pre-glabellar field is about the same width as the narrow anterior rim. The long, tapering thorax with a narrow axial lobe contains between 17 and 19 straight-sided segments, flexed gently downwards a short distance from the rounded tips. The tiny elliptical pygidium usually features two segments.

Unmineralized anatomy: rare specimens from the Walcott Quarry on Fossil Ridge retain tantalizing evidence of soft parts, including a pair of slender uniramous antennae, followed by very delicate looking biramous limbs beneath the cephalon, thorax and pygidium. These and other individuals of E. cordillerae are occasionally associated with a dark stain adjacent to the exoskeleton, presumably representing fluidized decay products.

Abundance:

Relatively common on Fossil Ridge and locally very abundant in the Walcott Quarry, where it represents about 25% of all trilobites collected (Caron and Jackson, 2008).

Maximum Size:
28 mm

Ecology:

Life habits: Drawing
Feeding strategies: Drawing
Ecological Interpretations:

Like similar-looking ptychoparioid trilobites, E. cordillerae may be interpreted as a fully mobile, epibenthic deposit (particle) feeder adapted to very low oxygen levels.

References:

BLAKER, M. R. AND J. S. PEEL. 1997. Lower Cambrian trilobites from North Greenland. Meddeleser om Grønland, Geoscience, 35, 145 p.

CARON, J.-B. AND D. A. JACKSON. 2008. Paleoecology of the Greater Phyllopod Bed community, Burgess Shale. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 258: 222-256.

DEISS, C. 1940. Lower and Middle Cambrian stratigraphy of southwestern Alberta and southeastern British Columbia. Bulletin of the Geological Society of America, 51: 731-794.

RASETTI, F. 1951. Middle Cambrian stratigraphy and faunas of the Canadian Rocky Mountains. Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections, 116 (5): 277 p.

RESSER, C. E. 1937. Third contribution to nomenclature of Cambrian trilobites. Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections, 95(22): 29 p.

ROMINGER, C. 1887. Description of primordial fossils from Mount Stephens, N. W. Territory of Canada. Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, 1887: 12-19.

RUDKIN, D. M. 1989. Trilobites with appendages from the Middle Cambrian Stephen Formation of British Columbia. 28th International Geological Congress, Washington, D.C. July 9-19, 1989. Abstracts: 2-729.

SCHOLTZ, G. AND G. D. EDGECOMBE. 2006. The evolution of arthropod heads: reconciling morphological, developmental and palaeontological evidence. Development Genes and Evolution, 216: 395-415.

WALCOTT, C. 1918. Cambrian Geology and Paleontology IV. Appendages of trilobites. Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections, 67(4): 115-216.

WALCOTT, C. D. 1924. Cambrian and Lower Ozarkian trilobites. Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections, 75(2): 53-60.

Other Links:

http://www.trilobites.info/ordptychopariida.htm

http://www.geological-supplies.com/burgess/abstracts/balint

http://gsa.confex.com/gsa/2008AM/finalprogram/abstract_149017.htm

Caryosyntrips serratus

Caryosyntrips serratus (ROM 57161) – Holotype, part and counterpart. Individual claw. Specimen length = 78 mm. Specimen dry – direct light (top row), dry – polarized light (bottom row). Walcott Quarry.

© Royal Ontario Museum. Photo: Jean-Bernard Caron

Taxonomy:

Kingdom: Drawing
Phylum: Drawing
Higher Taxonomic assignment: Dinocarida (Order: Radiodonta, stem group arthropods)
Species name: Caryosyntrips serratus
Remarks:

Caryosyntrips is an anomalocaridid. Anomalocaridids have been variously regarded as basal stem-lineage euarthropods (e.g., Daley et al., 2009), basal members of the arthropod group Chelicerata (e.g., Chen et al., 2004), and as a sister group to the arthropods (e.g., Hou et al., 2006).

Described by: Daley and Budd
Description date: 2010
Etymology:

Caryosyntrips – from the Greek karyon meaning “nut,” and syntrips, a mythical fiend who smashed pottery; thus, a nut smasher, referring to the nutcracker-like morphology of the paired appendages

serratus – from the Latin serratus, “saw-edged.”

Type Specimens: Holotype –ROM57161 in the Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto, Canada.
Other species:

Burgess Shale and vicinity: none.

Other deposits: none.

Age & Localities:

Age:
Middle Cambrian, Bathyuriscus-Elrathina Zone (approximately 505 million years ago).
Principal localities:

The Walcott and Raymond Quarries on Fossil Ridge. Also known from the Tulip Beds (S7) on Mount Stephen.

History of Research:

Brief history of research:

This genus was first noticed and illustrated as “Dinocarida A” in Caron (2005), and formally designated as Carysyntrips serratus by Daley and Budd (2010).

Description:

Morphology:

This taxon is known from eleven specimens of isolated appendages. Appendages are straight and tapering in outline, with a length that ranges between 58 mm and 114 mm. Segmentation of the appendage is poor, but at least 12 podomeres (segments) can be distinguished. The appendage is straight and rigid, with no movement occurring at the podomere boundaries. Each podomere has one thick, short spine on the inner surface, and several smaller spines on the outer surface, giving this outer margin a serrated appearance. The distal end of the appendage tapers to a point, and a single terminal spine is slightly curved. Most appendages are isolated, but a single paired specimen shows the appendages arranged in close proximity, with their thick spine margins in opposition. This particular specimen is loosely associated with potential remains of the body of the animal in the form of some cuticular elements. However, these elements are poorly preserved and might not be of the same animal.

Abundance:

Carysyntrips serratus is extremely rare. Most specimens (8) come from the Walcott Quarry.

Maximum Size:
114 mm

Ecology:

Life habits: Drawing
Feeding strategies: Drawing
Ecological Interpretations:

Carysyntrips serratus is assumed to have had a similar mode of life to the rest of the anomalocaridids, meaning that it swam through the water column actively searching out prey. Its predatory nature is inferred from the morphology of the appendages, which were heavily spined. The straight, rigid appendages may have pivoted at their proximal attachment points to bring the thick-spine edges of the pair appendages together in a grasping or slicing motion.

References:

CARON, J. B. 2005. Taphonomy and community analysis of the Middle Cambrian Greater Phyllopod Bed, Brugess Shale. Unpublished Ph.D. thesis, University of Toronto, Toronto, 316 pp.

CHEN, J. Y. D. WALOSZEK AND A. MAAS. 2004. A new ‘great-appendage’ arthropod from the Lower Cambrian of China and homology of chelicerate chelicerae and raptorial antero-ventral appendages. Lethaia, 37: 3-20.

DALEY, A. C., G. E. BUDD, J. B. CARON, G. D. EDGECOMBE AND D. COLLINS. 2009. The Burgess Shale anomalocaridid Hurdia and its significance for early euarthropod evolution. Science, 323: 1597-1600.

DALEY, A. C. AND G. E. BUDD. 2010. New anomalocaridid appendage from the Burgess Shale, Canada. Palaeontology, 53: 721-738.

Other Links:

None

Opabinia regalis

3D animation of Opabinia regalis.

ANIMATION BY PHLESCH BUBBLE © ROYAL ONTARIO MUSEUM

Taxonomy:

Kingdom: Drawing
Phylum: Drawing
Higher Taxonomic assignment: Dinocarida (Order: Radiodonta, stem group arthropods)
Species name: Opabinia regalis
Remarks:

Opabinia is an anomalocaridid. Anomalocaridids have been variously regarded as basal stem-lineage euarthropods (e.g., Budd, 1996; Zhang and Briggs, 2007, Daley et al., 2009), basal members of the arthropod group Chelicerata (e.g., Chen et al., 2004), and as a sister group to the arthropods (e.g., Hou et al., 2006)

Described by: Walcott
Description date: 1912
Etymology:

Opabinia – from Opabin Pass (2,606 m) between Mount Hungabee and Mount Biddle in Yoho National Park. From the Stoney First Nation Nakoda word for “rocky,” a descriptive name for the pass given by Samuel Allen in 1894.

regalis – from the Latin regalis, “royal, or regal.”

Type Specimens: Lectotype –USNM57683 in the National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC, USA.
Other species:

Burgess Shale and vicinity: none.

Other deposits: none.

Age & Localities:

Age:
Middle Cambrian, Bathyuriscus-Elrathina Zone (approximately 505 million years ago).
Principal localities:

The Walcott and Raymond Quarries on Fossil Ridge.

History of Research:

Brief history of research:

Opabinia regalis was first described by Walcott (1912) as the most primitive of all Burgess Shale arthropods. Owing to its unique morphology with a bizarre frontal “nozzle,” Opabinia became a flagship fossil for the Burgess Shale, leading to much speculation on its affinity and lifestyle. One famous reconstruction shows the animal swimming upside down as an anostracan crustacean (Hutchinson, 1930).

It wasn’t until the major redescription by Whittington (1975) that the morphology of Opabinia was revealed to be truly one of the most enigmatic of all fossils. It was so unusual, in fact, that when Whittington showed an early version of his reconstruction in a meeting of palaeontologists in 1972, the whole room burst out laughing!

Further work by Bergström (1986) identified similarities between Opabinia and the recently discovered whole-body specimens of Anomalocaris (Whittington and Briggs, 1985), and updated the morphology of the gills and frontal proboscis. Budd (1996) was the first to place Opabinia in the stem lineage of the euarthropods (just below the anomalocaridids), and also suggested the animal had trunk limbs, though this idea was contested by Zhang and Briggs (2007). The issue of whether Opabinia had trunk limbs remains controversial (Budd and Daley, 2011).

Description:

Morphology:

Opabinia has five eyes, a frontal “nozzle,” or proboscis, a body with serially repeated lateral lobes and gills, and a prominent tail fan. The whole body length ranges between 4.3 and 7.0 cm (excluding proboscis). The head has a rounded anterior margin, with five bulbous compound eyes on short stalks clustered on the dorsal surface of the head. The annulated frontal proboscis is four times longer than the head. It is highly flexible, and has a fused pair of appendages at the distal end, consisting of two opposing claws with five or six spines each. The mouth was ventral and faced to the rear.

The trunk was divided into 15 segments, each bearing a pair of lateral lobes in association with gill structures consisting of a series of lanceolate blades. There is some controversy as to the exact location of the gills (dorsal, ventral or posterior) relative to the lobes. The tail fan consists of three pairs of upward-directed flaps. The central region of the body shows an outline of the main body cavity, and a dark line representing a trace of the gut runs along the length of the body, starting with a U-shaped bend near the rearward opening ventral mouth. Paired spherical structures next to the alimentary canal could represent gut glands. There are also controversial triangular features in the central region of the body, which have alternatively been interpreted as lobopod-like walking limbs (Budd, 1996), or as undifferentiated diverticula or extensions of the gut (Whittington, 1975; Zhang and Briggs, 2007).

Abundance:

Opabinia is rare, with only 42 specimens known from all collections. In the Walcott Quarry, Opabinia represents only 0.006% of the community (Caron and Jackson, 2008).

Maximum Size:
101 mm

Ecology:

Life habits: Drawing
Feeding strategies: Drawing
Ecological Interpretations:

Opabinia was a swimmer. Undulatory waves along its lateral lobes propelled it forward, while it used its tail fan to steer. Opabinia probably employed the distal claws on its flexible nozzle to grasp soft food items and carry them towards its ventral mouth.

References:

BERGSTRÖM, J. 1986. Opabinia and Anomalocaris, unique Cambrian ‘arthropods.’ Lethaia, 19: 241-46.

BUDD, G.E. 1996: The morphology of Opabinia regalis and the reconstruction of the arthropod stem group. Lethaia, 29: 1-14.

BUDD, G.E. AND A. DALEY. 2011. The lobes and lobopods of Opabinia regalis from the middle Cambrian Burgess Shale. Lethaia, DOI: 10.1111/j.1502-3931.2011.00264.x.

CARON, J.-B. AND D. A. JACKSON. 2008. Paleoecology of the Greater Phyllopod Bed community, Burgess Shale. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 258: 222-256.

HUTCHINSON, G.E. 1930. Restudy of some Burgess Shale fossils. Proceedings of the U.S. National Museum, 78: 1-11.

WALCOTT, C. D. 1912. Middle Cambrian Branchiopoda, Malacostraca, Trilobita and Merostomata. Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections, 57: 145-228.

WHITTINGTON, H.B. 1975. The enigmatic animal Opabinia regalis, Middle Cambrian, Burgess Shale, British Columbia. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, Series B: Biological Sciences, 271: 1-43.

WHITTINGTON, H. B. AND D. E. G. BRIGGS. 1985. The largest Cambrian animal, Anomalocaris, Burgess Shale, British Columbia. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London Series B-Biological Sciences, 309: 569-609.

ZHANG, X.-G. AND D. E. G. BRIGGS. 2007: The nature and significance of the appendages of Opabinia from the Middle Cambrian Burgess Shale. Lethaia, 40: 161-173.

Other Links:

http://paleobiology.si.edu/burgess/opabinia.html

Olenoides serratus

3D animation of Olenoides serratus.

ANIMATION BY PHLESCH BUBBLE © ROYAL ONTARIO MUSEUM

Taxonomy:

Kingdom: Drawing
Phylum: Drawing
Higher Taxonomic assignment: Trilobita (Order: Corynexochida)
Species name: Olenoides serratus
Remarks:

Trilobites are extinct euarthropods, probably stem lineage representatives of the Mandibulata, which includes crustaceans, myriapods, and hexapods (Scholtz and Edgecombe, 2006).

Described by: Rominger
Description date: 1887
Etymology:

Olenoides – from Olenus, in Greek mythology a man who, along with his wife Lethaea, was turned to stone. Olenus was used for a trilobite genus name in 1827; the suffix –oides(“resembling”) was added later.

serratus – from the Latin serratus, “saw-shaped,” probably referring to the spinose margin of the pygidium.

Type Specimens: Type status under review – UMMP 4882 (11 specimens), University of Michigan Museum of Paleontology, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA.
Other species:

Burgess Shale and vicinity: Kootenia dawsoni; Kootenia burgessensis. (Species of Kooteniaare no longer considered different enough from those in Olenoides to warrant placement in a separate genus, but Kootenia is retained here for ease of reference to historical literature).

Other deposits: species of Olenoides are widespread in the Cambrian of North America and Greenland, and have been recorded in Siberia, China, and elsewhere.

Age & Localities:

Age:
Middle Cambrian, Bathyuriscus-Elrathina Zone (approximately 505 million years ago).
Principal localities:

The Walcott Quarry on Fossil Ridge. The Trilobite Beds and other localities on Mount Stephen.

History of Research:

Brief history of research:

Olenoides serratus was among the first Burgess Shale animals to be named and described. The fossils used in Rominger’s original 1887 description were collected from the Mount Stephen Trilobite Beds in 1886. Rominger coined the name Ogygia serrata for this trilobite, illustrating one complete specimen in accompanying engravings. Following several intermediate changes, the name now in use was first published by Kobayashi in 1935. Spectacular appendage-bearing specimens discovered during Walcott’s Fossil Ridge excavations in 1910-1911 brought Olenoides serratus (then called Neolenus serratus) attention worldwide as one of the most anatomically complete trilobites known. This iconic Burgess Shale species has been thoroughly redescribed by Harry Whittington (1975, 1980), who also concluded that Nathorstia transitans (named by Walcott in 1912) was a “soft shell” moult stage of Olenoides serratus.

Description:

Morphology:

Hard parts: adult dorsal exoskeletons may reach 9 cm long and are broadly oval in outline, with a semi-circular cephalon, a thorax of seven segments ending in spines, and a semi-circular pygidium with marginal spines. The cephalon, thorax and pygidium are of approximately equal length. The parallel-sided glabella is rounded in front and reaches almost to the anterior border. Thin eye ridges swing back from the front of the glabella to the small, outwardly-bowed eyes. The free cheeks narrow back into straight, slender genal spines reaching to the third pleurae. Tips of the pleurae also extend into needle-like spines. The spiny pygidium has six axial rings decreasing in size backwards; five pairs of marginal spines point rearward. The whole exoskeleton has a variably granulate outer surface with fine ridges and cusps near the margins.

Unmineralized anatomy: Olenoides serratus had a pair of flexible, multi-jointed cephalic “antennae.” Behind these, three pairs of biramous limbs were attached beneath the cephalon on either side of the mid-line. Each inner branch had a large spiny blade-shaped coxa and six spinose cylindrical podomeres that tapered away from the body, the last carrying three short “claws” at the tip. The outer limb branch was composed of many flat, overlapping filaments sweeping back from a long lobe, with a small oval, hair-fringed lobe at the outer end. Pairs of similar biramous appendages were attached under each thoracic segments; four to six pairs were attached under the pygidium, becoming shorter and more slender to the rear. Unique among all trilobites preserving limbs, Olenoides serratus also had a pair of antenna-like appendages (cerci; singular = cercus) emerging from under the pygidium behind the last biramous limbs.

Abundance:

Olenoides serratus is moderately common, especially at the Mount Stephen Trilobite Beds, where thousands of pieces and hundreds of partial to complete exoskeletons have been observed or collected. Olenoides is the largest and most conspicuous trilobite in the Walcott Quarry section on Fossil Ridge, where specimens with preserved appendages have been found.

Maximum Size:
90 mm

Ecology:

Life habits: Drawing
Feeding strategies: Drawing
Ecological Interpretations:

Adults of Olenoides serratus walked along the sea bed, possibly digging shallow furrows to locate small soft-bodied and weakly-shelled animals or carcasses. Prey items were shredded between the spiny limb bases and passed forward to the rear-facing mouth. Olenoides could probably swim just above sea bed for short distances. Some Olenoides fossils show unmistakable evidence of healed injuries, suggesting they may have been preyed upon, likely in their “soft-shell” growth phase, by larger arthropods such as Anomalocaris. Tiny larvae and early juveniles of Olenoides probably swam and drifted in the water column above the sea bed.

References:

KOBAYASHI, T. 1935. The Cambro-Ordovician formations and faunas of south Chosen. Paleontology, Part 3: Cambrian faunas of south Chosen with a special study on the Cambrian trilobite genera and families. Journal of the Faculty of Science, Imperial University of Tokyo, Section II. 4(2): 49-344.

RASETTI, F. 1951. Middle Cambrian stratigraphy and faunas of the Canadian Rocky Mountains. Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections, 116 (5): 1-277.

ROMINGER, C. 1887. Description of primordial fossils from Mount Stephens, N. W. Territory of Canada. Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, 1887: 12-19.

SCHOLTZ, G. AND G. D. EDGECOMBE. 2006. The evolution of arthropod heads: reconciling morphological, developmental and palaeontological evidence. Development Genes and Evolution, 216: 395-415.

WALCOTT, C. D. 1912. Cambrian Geology and Paleontology, II. No. 6. – Middle Cambrian Branchiopoda, Malacostraca, Trilobita, and Merostomata. Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections, 57(6): 145-228.

WHITTINGTON, H. B. 1975. Trilobites with appendages from the Middle Cambrian, Burgess Shale, British Columbia. Fossils and Strata, No. 4: 97-136.

WHITTINGTON, H. B. 1980. Exoskeleton, moult stage, appendage morphology, and habits of the Middle Cambrian trilobite Olenoides serratus. Palaeontology, 23: 171-204.

Other Links:

http://www.trilobites.info/ordcorynexochida.htm

http://www.trilobites.info/trilovent.htm

http://paleobiology.si.edu/burgess/olenoides.html

http://pakozoic.deviantart.com/art/Olenoides-serratus-3D-77550691

Ogygopsis klotzi

Ogygopsis klotzi (figure 1) illustrated by Rominger (1887) as Ogygia klotzi.

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Taxonomy:

Kingdom: Drawing
Phylum: Drawing
Higher Taxonomic assignment: Trilobita (Order: Corynexochida)
Species name: Ogygopsis klotzi
Remarks:

Trilobites are extinct euarthropods, probably stem lineage representatives of the Mandibulata, which includes crustaceans, myriapods, and hexapods (Scholtz and Edgecombe, 2006).

Described by: Rominger
Description date: 1887
Etymology:

Ogygopsis – from Ogygia, in Greek mythology, the 7th daughter of Amphion and Niobe; Ogygia was first used as a trilobite genus name in 1817.

klotzi – after Otto Klotz, the Dominion topographical surveyor who provided the fossils for Rominger’s study and description.

Type Specimens: Holotype (K. burgessensis) – USNM65511 in the National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC, USA (Resser, 1942); Type status under review – (K. dawsoni), University of Michigan Museum of Paleontology, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA.
Other species:

Burgess Shale and vicinity: Ogygopsis spinulosa Rasetti, 1951, from the slightly older Cathedral Formation on Mount Stephen.

Other deposits: species of Ogygopsis have now been described from elsewhere in the Cambrian of North America, as well as in Greenland and Siberia.

Age & Localities:

Age:
Middle Cambrian, Bathyuriscus–Elrathina Zone (approximately 505 million years ago).
Principal localities:

The Trilobite Beds and smaller localities on Mount Stephen.

History of Research:

Brief history of research:

Ogygopsis klotzi was first described in the same 1887 publication as several other important Mount Stephen trilobites. Rominger named the largest and most abundant species after Klotz, placing it in the genus Ogygia. The following year, Charles Walcott questioned this assignment, and in 1889 proposed the new genus name Ogygopsis. For decades afterwards, Ogygopsis was thought to be unique to the Mount Stephen Trilobite Beds, where it is the most conspicuous fossil on the mountain slope. In fact, Walcott designated the occurrence as the “Ogygopsis shale” in 1908, and subsequently named the Burgess Shale as its geographic equivalent (although Ogygopsis itself has never been found on Fossil Ridge!)

Description:

Morphology:

Hard parts: adult dorsal exoskeletons may be up to 13 cm long and are elongate oval in outline, with a large crescentic cephalon, a thorax of eight segments ending pointed blade-like tips, and a large semi-circular pygidium without spines. The glabella is long and barrel-shaped, smoothly rounded in front, reaching almost to the anterior border. Thin eye ridges angle back from near the front of the glabella to long narrow eyes located opposite glabellar mid-length. Free cheeks extend back into straight, short genal spines. The large pygidium has 9 axial rings decreasing in size backwards, followed by a terminal piece; 8 or 9 pairs of pygidial ribs become progressively shorter and more backwardly directed. The whole exoskeleton is mostly smooth externally, with fine ridges parallel to the margins; free cheeks and posterior fixed cheeks may show a distinctive pattern of fine anastomosing (interlinking) ridges.

Unmineralized anatomy: only a very few specimens of Ogygopsis klotzi are known with preserved evidence of limbs, but these show that there was a pair of flexible, multi-jointed antennae on the cephalon (Hofmann and Parsley, 1966).

Abundance:

Ogygopsis klotzi is extraordinarily abundant at the Mount Stephen Trilobite Beds, where it is the most common fossil encountered (Rudkin, 1996; 2009), but it does not occur on Fossil Ridge. The vast majority of more-or-less complete specimens lack free cheeks, and many paleontologists have interpreted these as moulted individuals.

Maximum Size:
130 mm

Ecology:

Life habits: Drawing
Feeding strategies: Drawing
Ecological Interpretations:

The shape and size of Ogygopsis klotzi adults suggest that they walked along the sea bed. Because Ogygopsis occurs in such enormous numbers, it is hard to imagine it as a predator/scavenger, like Olenoides. It may instead have consumed much smaller organic particles in unusual environments. Obvious healed injuries have been described on a number of Ogygopsis specimens; some of these may be evidence of predation on freshly moulted “soft-shell” trilobites by larger arthropods such as Anomalocaris (Rudkin, 1979; 2009). The tiny larval stages and early juveniles of Ogygopsis probably swam and drifted in the water column above the sea bed.

References:

HOFFMAN, H. J. AND R. L. PARSLEY. 1966. Antennae of Ogygopsis. Journal of Paleontology, 40: 209-211.

RASETTI, F. 1951. Middle Cambrian stratigraphy and faunas of the Canadian Rocky Mountains. Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections, 116 (5): 1-277.

ROMINGER, C. 1887. Description of primordial fossils from Mount Stephens, N. W. Territory of Canada. Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, 1887: 12-19.

RUDKIN, D. M. 1979. Healed injuries in Ogygopsis klotzi (Trilobita) from the Middle Cambrian of British Columbia. Royal Ontario Museum, Life Sciences Occasional Paper, 32: 1-8.

RUDKIN, D. M. 1996. The Trilobite Beds of Mount Stephen, Yoho National Park, p. 59-68. InR. Ludvigsen (ed.), Life in Stone – A Natural History of British Columbia’s Fossils. UBC Press, Vancouver.

RUDKIN, D. M. 2009. The Mount Stephen Trilobite Beds, p. 90-102. In J.-B. Caron and D. Rudkin (eds.), A Burgess Shale Primer – History, Geology, and Research Highlights. The Burgess Shale Consortium, Toronto.

SCHOLTZ, G. AND G. D. EDGECOMBE. 2006. The evolution of arthropod heads: reconciling morphological, developmental and palaeontological evidence. Development Genes and Evolution, 216: 395-415.

WALCOTT, C. D. 1908. Mount Stephen rocks and fossils. Canadian Alpine Journal, 1: 232-248.

WHITTINGTON, H. B. 1975. Trilobites with appendages from the Middle Cambrian, Burgess Shale, British Columbia. Fossils and Strata, No. 4: 97-136.

Other Links:

http://www.trilobites.info/ordcorynexochida.htm

http://www.trilobites.info/trilovent.htm

Naraoia compacta

Reconstruction of Naraoia compacta.

© MARIANNE COLLINS

Taxonomy:

Kingdom: Drawing
Phylum: Drawing
Higher Taxonomic assignment: Unranked clade (stem group arthropods)
Species name: Naraoia compacta
Remarks:

Naraoia is usually compared to the trilobites, but its exact relationships are uncertain (Whittington, 1977). The naraoiids and other trilobite-like arthropods, sometimes referred to as Trilobitoidea, can be grouped together with the trilobites to form the Lamellipedians (Hou and Bergström, 1997; Wills et al. 1998; Edgecombe and Ramsköld, 1999). This group has been variously placed in the upper stem lineage of the arthropods (Budd, 2002), or in the stem lineage of either the mandibulates (Scholtz and Edgecombe, 2006) or the chelicerates (Cotton and Braddy, 2004).

Described by: Walcott
Description date: 1912
Etymology:

Naraoia – from Narao Lakes, near Kicking Horse Pass in Yoho Park, British Columbia. From the Stoney First Nation Nakoda word Narao, meaning “hit in the stomach,” which likely refers to James Hector, who was kicked by a horse while travelling up the Kicking Horse River in 1858.

compacta – from the Latin compactus, “joined together.”

Type Specimens: Lectotype –USNM57687 (N. compacta) and holotypesUSNM83946 (N. spinifer) andUSNM189210 (N. halia) in the National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC, USA.
Other species:

Burgess Shale and vicinity: N. spinifer (Walcott, 1931); N. halia (Simonetta and Delle Cave, 1975) from the Walcott Quarry, Burgess Shale.

Other deposits: N. longicaudata and spinosa (Zhang and Hou, 1985) from the Early Cambrian Chengjiang biota of South China, of which N. longicaudata was later placed in its own genus, Misszhouia (Chen et al., 1997); Possible specimens of Naraoia have been found at the Lower Cambrian Emu Bay Shale in Australia (Nedin, 1999). Unlike most Burgess Shale arthropods, Naraoia has also been found in rocks younger than the Cambrian, in the Late Silurian Bertie Formation of Southern Ontario (Caron et al., 2004).

Age & Localities:

Age:
Middle Cambrian, Bathyuriscus-Elrathina Zone (approximately 505 million years ago).
Principal localities:

The Walcott and Raymond Quarries on Fossil Ridge. The Trilobite Beds on Mt. Stephen, Tulip Beds (S7) and Collins Quarry as well as other smaller localities on Mount Stephen.

History of Research:

Brief history of research:

The first description of Naraoia was N. compacta by Walcott (1912), who later described a second specimen, N. spinifer (1931). Simonetta and Delle Cave (1975) re-examined the specimens and designated the new species N. halia and N. pammon. A major redescription of all Burgess Shale material was undertaken by Whittington (1977), and N. compactaspecimens from the Marjum Formation in Utah and the Gibson Formation in Idaho were described by Robison (1984), both of whom synonymized N. halia and N. pammon with N. compacta. However, a major restudy of the naraoiids by Zhang et al. (2007) concluded that N. halia is actually a valid species.

Description:

Morphology:

Naraoia consists of two dorsal shields with a convex axial region, including a roughly square head shield and an elongated body shield. A pair of long, multi-jointed antennae emerges from beneath the head shield. Behind the antennae are four pairs of cephalic appendages and 14 pairs of trunk appendages. All these appendages are segmented and branch into two (biramous), with a spiny walking limb made up of seven segments, and a filamentous branch consisting of a thin shaft bearing many lamellae (flexible and elongated plate-like elements). The basal segment of the biramous appendage is composed of a large, spiny plate.

Internal structures of Naraoia are well preserved, with the most conspicuous feature being the complexly branched gut glands visible on the cephalic shield. The gut passes along the whole length of the body, with paired gut glands visible in the anterior half.

Abundance:

Hundreds of specimens of Naraoia are known from the Walcott Quarry, where they make up about 0.74% of the community (Caron and Jackson, 2008). Naraoia is rare in all the other known localities.

Maximum Size:
40 mm

Ecology:

Life habits: Drawing
Feeding strategies: Drawing
Ecological Interpretations:

Naraoia likely spent much of its time walking on the sea floor, since the rigidity of its appendages would only allow for limited periods of swimming. It would have sensed its environment, including food items, using its antennae. Naraoia used the segmented walking limbs of its biramous appendages for walking and for manipulating food items, which were crushed and moved towards the mouth using the spiny basal plate. The filamentous branches of the biramous limb were used for gas exchange and to propel the animal through the water during short burst of swimming. The large gut glands and spiny appendages suggest that Naraoia was a predator or scavenger. Specimens with healed injuries suggest that Naraoia was also a prey item for other larger predators.

References:

BUDD, G. E. 2002. A palaeontological solution to the arthropod head problem. Nature, 417: 271-275.

CARON, J.-B. AND D. A. JACKSON. 2008. Paleoecology of the Greater Phyllopod Bed community, Burgess Shale. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 258: 222-256.

CARON, J.-B., D. M. RUDKIN AND S. MILLIKEN. 2004. A new Late Silurian (Pridolian) naraoiid (Euarthropoda: Nektaspida) from the Bertie Formation of southern Ontario, Canada – delayed fallout from the Cambrian explosion. Journal of Paleontology, 78: 1138-1145.

CHEN, J. G. D. EDGECOMBE AND L. RAMSKöLD. 1997. Morphological and ecological disparity in naraoiids (Arthropoda) from the Early Cambrian Chengjiang fauna, China. Records of the Australian Museum, 49: 1-24.

COTTON, T. J. AND S. J. BRADDY. 2004. The phylogeny of arachnomorph arthropods and the origin of the Chelicerata. Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh: Earth Sciences, 94: 169-193.

EDGECOMBE, G. D. AND L. RAMSKÖLD. 1999. Relationships of Cambrian Arachnata and the systematic position of Trilobita. Journal of Paleontology, 73: 263-287.

HOU, X. AND J. BERGSTRÖM. 1997. Arthropods of the Lower Cambrian Chengjiang fauna, southwest China. Fossils and Strata, 45: 1-116.

NEDIN, C. 1999. Anomalocaris predation on nonmineralized and mineralized trilobites. Geology, 27: 987-990.

ROBISON, R. B. 1984. New occurrence of the unusual trilobite Naraoia from the Cambrian of Idaho and Utah. University of Kansa Paleontological Contribution, 112: 1-8.

SCHOLTZ, G. AND G. D. EDGECOMBE. 2006. The evolution of arthropod heads: reconciling morphological, developmental and palaeontological evidence. Development Genes and Evolution, 216: 395-415.

SIMONETTA, A. M. AND L. DELLE CAVE. 1975. The Cambrian non-trilobite arthropods from the Burgess shale of British Columbia: A study of their comparative morphology, taxonomy and evolutionary significance. Palaeontographia Italica, 69: 1-37.

WALCOTT, C. D. 1912. Cambrian Geology and Paleontology II. Middle Cambrian Branchiopoda, Malacostraca, Trilobita and Merostomata. Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections, 57(6): 145-228.

WALCOTT, C. D. 1931. Addenda to descriptions of Burgess Shale fossils. Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections, 85: 1-46.

WHITTINGTON, H. B. 1977. The Middle Cambrian trilobite Naraoia, Burgess Shale, British Columbia. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, B, 280: 409-443.

WILLS, M. A., D. E. G. BRIGGS, R. A. FORTEY, M. WILKINSON AND P. H. A. SNEATH. 1998. An arthropod phylogeny based on fossil and recent taxa, p. 33-105. In G. D. Edgecombe (ed.), Arthropod fossils and phylogeny. Columbia University Press, New York.

ZHANG, W. AND X. HOU. 1985. Preliminary notes on the occurrence of the unusual trilobite Naraoia in Asia. Acta Palaeontologica Sinica, 24: 591-595.

ZHANG, X., D. SHU AND D. H. ERWIN. 2007. Cambrian naraoiids (Arthropoda): Morphology, ontogeny, systematics and evolutionary relationships. Journal of Paleontology, 81:1-52.

Other Links:

http://paleobiology.si.edu/burgess/naraoia.html

Anomalocaris canadensis

3D animation of Anomalocaris canadensis.

Animation by Phlesch Bubble © Royal Ontario Museum

Taxonomy:

Kingdom: Drawing
Phylum: Drawing
Higher Taxonomic assignment: Dinocarida (Order: Radiodonta, stem group arthropods)
Species name: Anomalocaris canadensis
Remarks:

Anomalocaris is an anomalocaridid. Anomalocaridids have been variously regarded as basal stem-lineage euarthropods (e.g., Daley et al., 2009), basal members of the arthropod group Chelicerata (e.g., Chen et al., 2004), and as a sister group to the arthropods (e.g., Hou et al., 2006).

Described by: Whiteaves
Description date: 1892
Etymology:

Anomalocaris – from the Greek anomoios, “unlike,” and the Latin caris, “crab” or “shrimp,” thus, “unlike other shrimp.”

canadensis – from Canada, the country where the Burgess Shale is located.

Type Specimens: Lectotype – GSC3418 in the Geological Survey of Canada, Ottawa, Canada.
Other species:

Burgess Shale and vicinity: none.

Other deposits: A. pennsylvanica from the Early Cambrian Kinzers Formation in Pennsylvania (Resser, 1929); A. saron (Hou et al., 1995) from the Early Cambrian Chengjiang biota; A. briggsi (Nedin, 1995) from the Early Cambrian Emu Bay Shale of Australia.

Age & Localities:

Age:
Middle Cambrian, Bathyuriscus–Elrathina Zone (approximately 505 million years ago).
Principal localities:

The Collins, Raymond and Walcott Quarries on Fossil Ridge. The Trilobite Beds, Tulip Beds (S7) and the Collins Quarry on Mount Stephen. Additional localities on Mount Field, Mount Stephen, near Stanley Glacier and in the Early Cambrian Cranbrook Shale, Eager Formation, British Columbia.

History of Research:

Brief history of research:

Anomalocaris has a complex history of description because parts of its body were described in isolation before it was realized they all belonged to the same animal. The frontal appendage of Anomalocaris was described by Whiteaves (1892) as the body of a shrimp. The mouth parts were described by Walcott (1911) as a jellyfish called Peytoia nathorsti. A full body anomalocaridid specimen was originally described as the sea cucumber Laggania cambria (Walcott, 1911), and re-examined by Conway Morris (1978) who concluded it was a superimposition of the “jellyfish” Peytoia nathorsti on top of a sponge. Henriksen (1928) attached Anomalocaris to the carapace of Tuzoia, but Briggs (1979) suggested instead that it was the appendage of an unknown arthropod, an idea that turned out to be correct.

In the early 1980s, Harry Whittington was preparing an unidentified Burgess Shale fossil from the Geological Survey of Canada by chipping away layers of rock to reveal underlying structures, when he solved the mystery of Anomalocaris‘s identity. Much to his surprise, Whittington uncovered two Anomalocaris “shrimp” attached to the head region of a large body, which also had the “jellyfish” Peytoia as the mouth apparatus. Similar preparations of other fossils from the Smithsonian Institution in Washington DC revealed the same general morphology, including the Laggania cambria specimen Conway Morris (1978) thought to be the superimposition of the Peytoia jellyfish on a sponge, which was actually a second species of Anomalocaris. Thus, Whittington and Briggs (1985) were able to describe two species: Anomalocaris canadensis, which had a pair of the typical Anomalocaris appendages, and Anomalocaris nathorsti, which has a different type of frontal appendage and includes the original specimen of Laggania cambria. Bergström (1986) re-examined the morphology and affinity of Anomalocaris and suggested it had similarities to the arthropods.

Collecting at the Burgess Shale by the Royal Ontario Museum in the early 1990s led to the discovery of several complete specimens, which Collins (1996) used to reconstruct Anomalocaris canadensis with greater accuracy. This led to a name change of Anomalocaris nathorsti to Laggania cambria. Anomalocaris has since been the subject of many studies discussing its affinity (e.g., Hou et al., 1995; Chen et al., 2004; Daley et al., 2009), ecology (e.g., Rudkin, 1979; Nedin, 1999) and functional morphology (e.g., Usami, 2006).

Description:

Morphology:

Anomalocaris is a bilaterally symmetrical and dorsoventrally flattened animal with a non-mineralized exoskeleton. It has a segmented trunk, with at least 11 lateral swimming flaps bearing gills, and a prominent tailfan, which consists of three pairs of prominent fins that extend upward from the body. Paired gut glands are associated with the body segments in some specimens. The head region bears one pair of anterior appendages, two eyes on stalks, and a ventrally oriented circular mouth apparatus with many spiny plates. The frontal appendages are elongated and have 14 segments, each with a pair of sharp spikes projecting from the ventral surface. The stalked eyes are dorsal and relatively large. The ventral mouth apparatus has 32 rectangular plates, four large and 28 small, arranged in a circle, with sharp spines pointing into a square central opening. The most complete Anomalocaris specimen is 25 cm in length, although individual fragments suggest individuals could reach a larger size, perhaps up to 100 cm.

Abundance:

The Anomalocaris frontal appendage is extremely common at the Mount Stephen Trilobite Beds, and several hundred specimens of isolated frontal appendages and mouth parts have been collected from Mount Stephen and the Raymond Quarry on Fossil Ridge. These parts are relatively rare at Walcott Quarry, where fewer than 50 specimens are known (Caron and Jackson, 2008). Several dozen disarticulated assemblages and five complete body specimens are known from the Raymond Quarry.

Maximum Size:
1000 mm

Ecology:

Life habits: Drawing
Feeding strategies: Drawing
Ecological Interpretations:

The streamlined body would have been ideal for swimming. Undulatory movements of the lateral flaps propelled the animal through the water column and might have also served in gill ventilation. While swimming, Anomalocaris‘s frontal appendages would hang below the body, but it would thrust its head and appendages forward 180° to attack prey as needed.

A predatory lifestyle is suggested by the large eyes, frontal appendages with spines, gut glands, and spiny mouth apparatus. The circular mouth part is unique in the animal kingdom. It seems unlikely that it was used to bite prey by bringing lateral plates into opposition, rather, it grasped objects either by pivoting the plates outwards or contracting them inward. It has been suggested that Anomalocaris may have preyed on trilobites because some Cambrian trilobites have round or W-shaped healed wounds, interpreted as bite marks (Rudkin, 1979), and large fecal pellets composed of trilobite parts have been found in the Cambrian rock record; anamalocaridids are the only known animals large enough to have produced such pellets. The anomalocaridids could have fed by grasping one end of the trilobite in the mouth apparatus and rocking the other end back and forth with the frontal appendages until the exoskeleton cracked (Nedin, 1999). However, the unmineralized mouth apparatus of Anomalocaris would have probably been too weak to penetrate the calcified shell of trilobites in this manner, and the mouth parts do not show any sign of breakage or wear. Thus, Anomalocaris may have been feeding on soft-bodied organisms including on freshly moulted “soft-shell” trilobites (Rudkin, 2009).

References:

BERGSTRÖM, J. 1986. Opabinia and Anomalocaris, unique Cambrian ‘arthropods’. Lethaia, 19: 241-46.

BRIGGS, D. E. G. 1979. Anomalocaris, the largest known Cambrian arthropod. Palaeontology, 22: 631-663.

CARON, J.-B. AND D. A. JACKSON. 2008. Paleoecology of the Greater Phyllopod Bed community, Burgess Shale. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 258: 222-256.

CHEN, J. Y., D. WALOSZEK AND A. MAAS. 2004. A new “great-appendage” arthropod from the Lower Cambrian of China and homology of chelicerate chelicerae and raptorial antero-ventral appendages. Lethaia, 37: 3-20.

COLLINS, D. 1996. The “evolution” of Anomalocaris and its classification in the arthropod class Dinocarida (nov) and order Radiodonta (nov). Journal of Paleontology, 70: 280-293.

CONWAY MORRIS, S. 1978. Laggania cambria Walcott: a composite fossil. Journal of Paleontology, 52: 126-131.

DALEY, A. C., G. E. BUDD, J. B. CARON, G. D. EDGECOMBE AND D. COLLINS. 2009. The Burgess Shale anomalocaridid Hurdia and its significance for early euarthropod evolution. Science, 323: 1597-1600.

HENRIKSEN, K. L. 1928. Critical notes upon some Cambrian arthropods described from Charles D. Walcott. Videnskabelige Meddelelser fra Dansk Naturhistorisk Forening: Khobenhavn, 86: 1-20.

HOU, X., J. BERGSTRÖM AND P. AHLBERG. 1995. Anomalocaris and other large animals in the Lower Cambrian Chengjiang fauna of Southwest China. GFF, 117: 163-183.

HOU, X., J. BERGSTRÖM AND Y. JIE. 2006. Distinguishing anomalocaridids from arthropods and priapulids. Geological Journal, 41:259-269.

NEDIN, C. 1999. Anomalocaris predation on nonmineralized and mineralized trilobites. Geology, 27: 987-990.

RESSER, C. E. 1929. New Lower and Middle Cambrian Crustacea. Proceedings of the United States National Museum, 76: 1-18.

RUDKIN, D. M. 1979. Healed injuries in Ogygosis klotzi (Trilobita) from the Middle Cambrian of British Columbia. Royal Ontario Museum, Life Sciences Occasional Paper, 32: 1-8.

RUDKIN, D. M. 2009. The Mount Stephen Trilobite Beds, pp. 90-102. In J.-B. Caron and D. Rudkin (eds.), A Burgess Shale Primer – History, Geology, and Research Highlights. The Burgess Shale Consortium, Toronto.

USAMI, Y. 2006. Theoretical study on the body form and swimming pattern of Anomalocaris based on hydrodynamic simulation. Journal of Theoretical Biology, 238: 11-17.

WALCOTT, C. D. 1911. Middle Cambrian holothurians and medusae. Cambrian geoogy and paleontology II. Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections, 57: 41-68.

WHITEAVES, J. F. 1892. Description of a new genus and species of phyllocarid Crustacea from the Middle Cambrian of Mount Stephen, B.C. Canadian Record of Science, 5: 205-208.

WHITTINGTON, H. B. AND D. E. G. BRIGGS. 1985. The largest Cambrian animal, Anomalocaris, Burgess Shale, British-Columbia. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London Series B-Biological Sciences, 309: 569-609.

Other Links:

www.trilobites.info/anohome.html

http://paleobiology.si.edu/burgess/anomalocaris.html