| Nereocaris Temporal range: Wuliuan (Middle Cambrian), | |
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| Artistic reconstruction of Nereocaris exilis | |
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| Genus: | Nereocaris Legg et al. 2012 |
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Nereocaris is an extinct genus of bivalved hymenocarine arthropod that lived in the Cambrian aged Burgess Shale in what is now British Columbia around 506 million years ago. [1] Two species are known.
The holotype and paratype were found in the Burgess Shale Lagerstätte, in the Tulip Beds; it was later described in 2012, by Legg et al, as a basal hymenocarine, naming the type species Neroecaris exilis. [1] In 2013, a second Nereocaris briggsi was described by Legg and Caron. [2]
The generic name, Nereocaris comes from Greek: Nereo, Nereus the Greek god of waves; and caris, "shrimp" or "crab", meaning "Nereus's shrimp". The specific name exilis comes from Latin, meaning slim; while the second species' name briggsi means "of Briggs", referring to professor Derek Briggs, an expert on Cambrian arthropods. [1] [2]
According to the diagnosis of Legg and Caron (2013), the genus including both species is diagnosed by the presence of two lateral stalked eyes and one median eye, the possession of a laterally compressed bivalved carapace with hook-like elements, and a telson with a triangular medial process and a three-segmented elongate lateral process. [2] Nereocaris exilis was relatively large sized arthropod for the era, with the largest specimen measuring up to 142 millimetres (0.466 feet). They possessed a thick carapace covering the dorsal and lateral sides of the head. Their thorax was composed of 30-40 segments, each of them coming with a pair of legs. The shape of its armor made it so the legs had a very limited range of movement, barely being able to reach whatever was directly under them. The abdomen was composed of another 60 segments, finishing in a short telson with a pair of triangular flukes made up of three segments each. [1]
Legg et al. (2012) recovered it as a basal member of Hymenocarina, [1] Izquierdo-López and Caron (2022) recovered both within Hymenocarina, but the genus was found to be non-monophyletic, with the two species found to be more closely related to other hymenocarines than they were to each other. [3]
Canadaspis is an extinct genus of bivalved Cambrian arthropod, known from North America and China. They are thought to have been benthic feeders that moved mainly by walking and possibly used its biramous appendages to stir mud in search of food. They have been placed within the Hymenocarina, which includes other bivalved Cambrian arthropods.
Waptia is an extinct genus of arthropod from the Middle Cambrian of North America. It grew to a length of 6.65 cm (3 in), and had a large bivalved carapace and a segmented body terminating into a pair of tail flaps. It was an active swimmer and likely a predator of soft-bodied prey. It is also one of the oldest animals with direct evidence of brood care. Waptia fieldensis is the only species classified under the genus Waptia, and is known from the Burgess Shale Lagerstätte of British Columbia, Canada. Specimens of Waptia are also known from the Spence Shale of Utah, United States.
Perspicaris an extinct genus of bivalved arthropod from the Cambrian period. Fossils have been found in North America, primarily the Burgess Shale of British Columbia, Canada but also possibly the Wheeler Shale, Marjum Formation, Pioche Shale and Bloomington Formation. Two named species are known from the Burgess Shale Perspicaris dictynna and Perspicaris recondita, which differ in maximum size, as well as proportions of the tail. Both species have a pair of stalked eyes, as well as a pair of large segmented antennae. The tail is forked and spiny. They are thought to have been active swimmers (nektonic).
Odaraia is a genus of bivalved arthropod from the Middle Cambrian. Its fossils, which reach 15 centimetres (5.9 in) in length, have been found in the Burgess Shale in British Columbia, Canada.
Branchiocaris is an extinct genus of Cambrian bivalved arthropod. The type and best known species, Branchiocaris pretiosa, was described from the Burgess Shale of British Columbia, Canada, in 1929, originally placed in Protocaris, and was placed into its own distinct genus by Briggs in 1976. Several other possible species have been described from Cambrian deposits in China, and it is also possibly known from Cambrian deposits in Utah. Branchiocaris pretiosa is around 80–90 millimetres (3.1–3.5 in) in length, with a highly segmented trunk, consisting of at least 44 ring-like segments, terminating in a forked tail telson. At the front of the animal is a pair of short segmented tapered antennules with at least 20 segments, as well as a pair of claw appendages. It was likely an active swimmer, and used the claw appendages to bring food to the mouth.
Tuzoia is an extinct genus of large bivalved arthropod known from Early to Middle Cambrian marine environments from what is now North America, Australia, China, Europe and Siberia. The large, domed carapace reached lengths of 180 millimetres (7.1 in), making them amongst the largest known Cambrian arthropods.
Clypecaris is genus of bivalved Cambrian arthropod known from the Chengjiang biota of Yunnan, China. The genus was initially described for the type species C. pteroidea by Hou, 1999. A second species C. serrata was described by Yang et al. in 2016. The species are primarily distinguished by the presence of a serrated edge on the front of the carapace of C. serrata. C. serrata is noted for the modification of an anterior pair of limbs into spined grasping appendages, indicating a predatory lifestyle. It is unknown whether a similar structure was present in C. pteroidea.Clypecaris is considered to likely be a member or a close relative of Hymenocarina, and is closely related to Perspicaris. As well as to Ercaicunia.
Ercaicunia is genus of bivalved Cambrian arthropod from the Chengjiang biota of Yunnan, China. It contains a single species, E. multinodosa that was described by Luo et al. in 1999. The total length of the body ranges from 8 to 11 millimetres. The bivalved carapace covered about a third of the total body-length, and has up to six serrations on its forward edge. The head has a pair of large uniramous antennae, as well as a smaller pair of secondary antennae, as well as pair of mandibles and maxillae. The trunk has 16 pairs of biramous appendages. Specimens were CT scanned in 2019, which suggested it to be a stem-group crustacean. Other subsequent studies have recovered it as a member of Hymenocarina, which contains other bivalved Cambrian arthropods.
Pectocaris is an extinct genus of bivalved arthropods from the Cambrian Maotianshan Shales, Yunnan Province of China. There are currently three known species within the genus.
Primicaris is genus of Cambrian arthropod from the Chengjiang biota of China and the Burgess Shale of Canada. It contains a single described species, P. larvaformis.
Protocaris marshi is an extinct species of bivalved arthropod known from a single specimen collected from the Cambrian Series 2 aged Parker Formation from the Parker Quarry of northwestern Vermont, United States The specimen is preserved in top-down view and has a bivalved carapace, a segmented trunk and a forked tail. Its precise taxonomic position is uncertain, due to the limited nature of known remains, but it is suggested to be a member of Hymenocarina belonging to the family Protocarididae, which also includes Tokummia and Branchiocaris.
Tokummia is a genus of fossil hymenocarine arthropod, known only by one species, Tokummiakatalepsis, from the middle Cambrian Burgess Shale as found in a quarry in Marble Canyon in Canada.
Hymenocarina is an order of extinct arthropods known from the Cambrian. They possess bivalved carapaces, typically with exposed posteriors. Members of the group are morphologically diverse and had a variety of ecologies, including as filter feeders and as predators. Recent research has generally considered them to be stem or crown group members of Mandibulata, due the presence of mandibles in at least some species.
Kylinxia is a genus of extinct arthropod described in 2020. It was described from six specimens discovered in Yu'anshan Formation in southern China. The specimens are assigned to one species Kylinxia zhangi. Dated to 518 million years, the fossils falls under the Cambrian period. Announcing the discovery on 4 November 2020 at a press conference, Zeng Han of the Nanjing Institute of Geology and Paleontology, said that the animal "bridges the evolutionary gap from Anomalocaris to true arthropods and forms a key ‘missing link’ in the origin of arthropods," which was "predicted by Darwin’s evolutionary theory." The same day the formal description was published in Nature.
Erratus is an extinct genus of marine arthropod from the Cambrian of China. Its type and only species is Erratus sperare. Erratus is likely one of the most basal known arthropods, and its discovery has helped scientists understand the early evolution of arthropod trunk appendages. Some of the stem-arthropods like radiodonts did not have legs, instead they had flap like appendages that helped them swim. Erratus on the other hand had not only flaps but also a set of primitive legs. It also supported the theory that the gills of aquatic arthropods probably evolved into the wings and lungs of terrestrial arthropods later in the Paleozoic.
Fibulacaris is a monotypic genus of fossil arthropod known only by one species, Fibulacaris nereidis, discovered from the Cambrian Burgess Shale of Canada. It was characterized by a bivalved carapace with an inverted rostrum, sandwiching the slender body with stalked eyes and homonomous appendages. It was probably an actively swimming filter feeder and possibly swam upside-down like some branchiopod crustaceans and horseshoe crabs. Phylogenetic analysis suggest it was a relative or member of Hymenocarina, which contains other bivalved arthropods.
Balhuticaris is a genus of extinct bivalved hymenocarine arthropod that lived in the Cambrian aged Burgess Shale in what is now British Columbia around 506 million years ago. This extremely multisegmented arthropod is the largest member of the group, and it was even one of the largest animals of the Cambrian, with individuals reaching lengths of 245 mm (9 in). Fossils of this animal suggests that gigantism occurred in more groups of Arthropoda than had been previously thought. It also presents the possibility that bivalved arthropods were very diverse, and filled in a lot of ecological niches.
Pakucaris is an extinct genus of bivalved arthropod known from a single species, Pakucaris apatis, found in the Marble Canyon locality of the Burgess Shale in British Columbia, Canada. It is thought to be a member of Hymenocarina. Unlike other members of that group, the posterior segments are covered with a separate pygidium shield, covergent on other arthropods like artiopods. Specimens range in length from 11.65 to 26.6 millimetres. The main bivalved carapace covers around 80% of the body, with the pygidium covering the remaining 20%. The head has a forward and downward facing pair of moderately sized eyes on short stalks, along with three pairs of cephalic appendages. The thorax has either 30-35 or 70-80 segments, depending on the specimen, while the pygidium has either 11-13 or 20 segments. The segments of the thorax and pygidium have pairs of thin filamentous limbs divided into 20/21 podomeres, with paddle-like exopods. It was probably nektobenthic, and its ecology was likely that of a selective suspension feeder, using its limbs to scrape and/or suspend food particles from the sea floor, before using its limbs to capture and transfer them to the mouth.
Jugatacaris is an extinct genus of bivalved arthropod known from a single species, Jugatacaris agilis found in the Cambrian Stage 3 aged Chengjiang biota of Yunnan, China. The carapace is around 28 to 37 millimetres in length, with a pronounced ridge at the top of the carapace separating the two valves, which formed a fin-like structure raised above the carapace. The head has a pair of stalked eyes, as well as a dumbbell shaped medial eye between them. The head also bore a pair of mandibles as well as at least one and possibly two pairs of antennules. The trunk had up to 65 segments, each with biramous appendages. The appendages had thin endopods with 30 podomeres, each bearing a spiny endite, with the endopods ending with a terminal claw. The appendages also had overlapping flap-like exopods, which are elongated, being at maximum eight times as long as they are wide, which on their posterior edge are covered with setae. The trunk ended with a forked tail. It was likely an actively swimming filter feeder, using its constantly beating appendages to sift food from the water column, which was then passed forward along the U-shaped food groove between the appendage pairs towards the mouth. While initially placed as a crustaceanomorph, later studies considered to be a member of Hymenocarina, which contains numerous other similar bivalved Cambrian arthropods.
Isoxyids are members of the order Isoxyida and the family Isoxyidae, a group of basal arthropods that existed during the Cambrian period. It contains two genera, Isoxys, with 20 species found worldwide, and Surusicaris known from a single species found in the Burgess Shale of Canada. They are distinguished by their bivalved carapaces and pair of upward curving grasping frontal appendages.
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