Leanchoilia
| Leanchoilia Temporal range: Cambrian Stage 3–Middle Cambrian | |
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| Fossil specimen | |
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| Reconstruction | |
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Arthropoda |
| Class: | †Megacheira |
| Order: | †Leanchoilida Størmer, 1944 |
| Family: | †Leanchoiliidae Raymond, 1935 |
| Genus: | †Leanchoilia Walcott, 1912 |
| Species | |
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Leanchoilia superlata (type) | |
Leanchoilia is a four-eyed arachnomorph arthropod known from Cambrian deposits of the Burgess Shale in Canada and the Chengjiang biota of China. It was about 5 centimetres (2.0 in) long and had long, whip-like feelers mounted on frontal arm-like appendages. Its internal organs are occasionally preserved within the substrate in three dimensions.[1] It had stalked compound eyes as well as pit-like ocelli.[2]
Two species are tentatively accepted today: the type species L. superlata and the recently revalidated L. persephone. They may however be examples of sexual dimorphism.[3] 55 specimens of Leanchoilia are known from the Greater Phyllopod bed, where they comprise 0.1% of the community.[4]
References
- ↑ Nicholas J. Butterfield (2002). "Leanchoilia guts and the interpretation of three-dimensional structures in Burgess Shale-type fossils". Paleobiology. 28 (1): 155–171. doi:10.1666/0094-8373(2002)028<0155:LGATIO>2.0.CO;2.
- ↑ Brigitte Schoenemann & Euan N. K. Clarkson (2012). "The eyes of Leanchoilia". Lethaia. 45 (4): 524–531. doi:10.1111/j.1502-3931.2012.00313.x.
- ↑ Diego C. García-Bellido & Desmond Collins (2007). "Reassessment of the genus Leanchoilia (Arthropoda, Arachnomorpha) from the Middle Cambrian Burgess Shale, British Columbia, Canada". Palaeontology. 50 (3): 693–709. doi:10.1111/j.1475-4983.2007.00649.x.
- ↑ Caron, Jean-Bernard; Jackson, Donald A. (October 2006). "Taphonomy of the Greater Phyllopod Bed community, Burgess Shale". PALAIOS. 21 (5): 451–65. doi:10.2110/palo.2003.P05-070R. JSTOR 20173022.
External links
- "Leanchoilia superlata". Burgess Shale Fossil Gallery. Virtual Museum of Canada. 2011.
Media related to Leanchoilia at Wikimedia Commons
Data related to Leanchoilia at Wikispecies- Leanchoilia illecebrosa Ancient Arthropod from Chengjiang The Virtual Fossil Museum