| Multiplacophora | |
|---|---|
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Mollusca |
| Class: | Polyplacophora |
| Order: | † Multiplacophora Hoare and Mapes, 1995 [1] |
| Families | |
Multiplacophora is a stem-group of chitons with a number of plates arranged in 7 rows along the body. [2] They date to at least the Upper Cambrian, but two lower Cambrian fossils- Ocruranus and Trachyplax - may extend the range downwards. [3]
Hyoliths are animals with small conical shells, known as fossils from the Palaeozoic Era. They are lophophorates, a group which includes the brachiopods.
Machaeridia is an extinct group of armoured, segmented annelid worms, known from the Early Ordovician to Carboniferous. It consists of three distinct families: the plumulitids, turrilepadids and lepidocoleids.
Marrella is an extinct genus of arthropod known from the middle Cambrian Burgess Shale of British Columbia. It is the most common animal represented in the Burgess Shale.
Chitons are marine molluscs of varying size in the class Polyplacophora, formerly known as Amphineura. About 940 extant and 430 fossil species are recognized.
Sirius Passet is a Cambrian Lagerstätte in Greenland. The Sirius Passet Lagerstätte was named after the Sirius sledge patrol that operates in North Greenland. It comprises six places in Nansen Land, on the east shore of J.P. Koch Fjord in the far north of Greenland. It was discovered in 1984 by A. Higgins of the Geological Survey of Greenland. A preliminary account was published by Simon Conway Morris and others in 1987 and expeditions led by J. S. Peel and Conway Morris have returned to the site several times between 1989 and the present. A field collection of perhaps 10,000 fossil specimens has been amassed. It is a part of the Buen Formation.
The halkieriids are a group of fossil organisms from the Lower to Middle Cambrian. Their eponymous genus is Halkieria, which has been found on almost every continent in Lower to Mid Cambrian deposits, forming a large component of the small shelly fossil assemblages. The best known species is Halkieria evangelista, from the North Greenland Sirius Passet Lagerstätte, in which complete specimens were collected on an expedition in 1989. The fossils were described by Simon Conway Morris and John Peel in a short paper in 1990 in the journal Nature. Later a more thorough description was undertaken in 1995 in the journal Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London and wider evolutionary implications were posed.
Helcionellid or Helcionelliformes is an order of small fossil shells that are universally interpreted as molluscs, though no sources spell out why this taxonomic interpretation is preferred. These animals are first found about 540 to 530 million years ago in the late Nemakit-Daldynian age, which is the earliest part of the Cambrian period. A single species persisted to the Early Ordovician. These fossils are component of the small shelly fossils (SSF) assemblages.
Plectronoceras is the earliest known shelled cephalopod, dating to the Late Cambrian. None of the fossils are complete, and none show the apex or aperture of the shell. Approximately half of its shell was filled with septa; 7 were recorded in a 2 centimetres (0.79 in) shell. Its shell contains transverse septa separated by about half a millimetre, with a siphuncle on its concave side. Its morphology matches closely to that hypothesised for the last common ancestor of all cephalopods.
Class Xenusia, the Xenusiids, represents the subset of lobopodian worms that fall in the stem-lineage of Onychophora. Their type genus is Xenusion. They have relatively large, annulated, cylindrical bodies. Their lobopod legs have tubercles at their bases. Some have large frontal appendages, although these may represent taphonomic artefacts. Their mouth is terminal or subterminal, and they are marine. They probably represent a grade rather than a clade.
Jianshanopodia decora is a Cambrian lobopodian. Its frontal, grasping appendages bear wedge-shaped plates. Its limbs branch, instead of being tipped with claws as many lobopods' are. It has a sediment-filled gut surrounded by serially repeated diverticulae. It is thought to have sucked up prey with its short 'trunk'. It mainly crawled on the sea floor, but could swim when necessary. Its mouth resembles those of anomalocaridids and priapulids.
Robustum nodum is the one species of a problematic genus of Ordovician hemithecellid mollusc proposed by Stinchcomb and Darrough in 1995. Its similarities to Matthevia were outlined by Vendrasco & Runnegar.
The palaeoscolecids are a group of extinct ecdysozoan worms resembling armoured priapulids. They are known from the Lower Cambrian to the late Silurian; they are mainly found as disarticulated sclerites, but are also preserved in many of the Cambrian lagerstätten. They take their name from the typifying genus Palaeoscolex.
Gnathifera is a clade of generally small spiralians characterized by complex jaws made of chitin. It comprises the phyla Gnathostomulida, Rotifera, Micrognathozoa, and Chaetognatha. It may also include the Cycliophora.
Oesia disjuncta is a monospecific genus known from the Middle Cambrian Burgess Shale. 1147 specimens of Oesia are known from the Greater Phyllopod bed, where they comprise 2.18% of the community. Despite some similarities to the chaetognaths, its affinity is unknown, though recent data suggest it may be affiliated with hemichordates.
Fordilla is an extinct genus of early bivalves, one of two genera in the extinct family Fordillidae. The genus is known solely from Early Cambrian fossils found in North America, Greenland, Europe, the Middle East, and Asia. The genus currently contains three described species, Fordilla germanica, Fordilla sibirica, and the type species Fordilla troyensis.
Stanleycaris is an extinct, monotypic genus of anomalocaridid which existed in Canada, during the middle Cambrian (Miaolingian). The type species is Stanleycaris hirpex. Stanleycaris was described from the Stephen Formation near the Stanley Glacier Burgess Shale locality and also informally reported from Odaray Mountain.
Pojetaia is an extinct genus of early bivalves, one of two genera in the extinct family Fordillidae. The genus is known solely from Early to Middle Cambrian fossils found in North America, Greenland, Europe, North Africa, Asia, and Australia. The genus currently contains two accepted species, Pojetaia runnegari, the type species, and Pojetaia sarhroensis, though up to seven species have been proposed. The genera Buluniella, Jellia, and Oryzoconcha are all considered synonyms of Pojetaia.
Polysacos is an extinct genus of multiplacophorans (chitons) known from articulated Carboniferous fossils; its seventeen shell plates are arranged in three rows, with seven iterated units. It demonstrates that multiplacophora are related to modern polyplacophora. It was fringed with a ring of hollow spines resembling those of the Ordovician Echinochiton.
Glaphurochiton is a genus of fossil chitons known from the Mazon Creek biota.
Jerzy Dzik is a Polish paleontologist.