| Oymurania Temporal range: | |
|---|---|
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Stem group: | Brachiopoda |
| Informal group: | † Tommotiids |
| Informal group: | † Tannuolinids (?) |
| Genus: | † Oymurania Kouchinsky et al. 2014 [1] |
Oymurania is an organophosphatic Cambrian small shelly fossil interpreted as a stem-group Brachiopod. It consists of a pair of Micrina-like shells that broadly follow a logarithmic coiling trajectory with a high rate of expansion. [1]
Its shell comprises an inner prismatic layer, with hexagonal prisms that run through the full depth of the layer, and an outer layer that contains an acrotretid-like microstructure of surface-parallel laminae punctuated by pore-bearing rod-like columns. [2]
Wiwaxia is a genus of soft-bodied animals that were covered in carbonaceous scales and spines that protected it from predators. Wiwaxia fossils – mainly isolated scales, but sometimes complete, articulated fossils – are known from early Cambrian and middle Cambrian fossil deposits across the globe. The living animal would have measured up to 5 cm (2 inch) when fully grown, although a range of juvenile specimens are known, the smallest being 2 millimetres (0.079 in) long.
Tentaculites is an extinct genus of conical fossils of uncertain affinity, class Tentaculita, although it is not the only member of the class. It is known from Lower Ordovician to Upper Devonian deposits both as calcitic shells with a brachiopod-like microstructure and carbonaceous 'linings'. The "tentaculites" are also referred to as the styliolinids.
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.
Halwaxiida or halwaxiids is a proposed clade equivalent to the older orders Sachitida He 1980 and Thambetolepidea Jell 1981, loosely uniting scale-bearing Cambrian animals, which may lie in the stem group to molluscs or lophotrochozoa. Some palaeontologists question the validity of the Halwaxiida clade.
The small shelly fauna, small shelly fossils (SSF), or early skeletal fossils (ESF) are mineralized fossils, many only a few millimetres long, with a nearly continuous record from the latest stages of the Ediacaran to the end of the Early Cambrian Period. They are very diverse, and there is no formal definition of "small shelly fauna" or "small shelly fossils". Almost all are from earlier rocks than more familiar fossils such as trilobites. Since most SSFs were preserved by being covered quickly with phosphate and this method of preservation is mainly limited to the late Ediacaran and early Cambrian periods, the animals that made them may actually have arisen earlier and persisted after this time span.
Since 1990 there has been intense debate among paleontologists about the evolution in the Early Cambrian period of the "super-phylum" Lophotrochozoa, which is thought to include the modern molluscs, annelid worms and brachiopods, as well as their evolutionary "aunts" and "cousins".
Brachiopods, phylum Brachiopoda, are a phylum of trochozoan animals that have hard "valves" (shells) on the upper and lower surfaces, unlike the left and right arrangement in bivalve molluscs. Brachiopod valves are hinged at the rear end, while the front can be opened for feeding or closed for protection. Two major categories are traditionally recognized, articulate and inarticulate brachiopods. The word "articulate" is used to describe the tooth-and-groove structures of the valve-hinge which is present in the articulate group, and absent from the inarticulate group. This is the leading diagnostic skeletal feature, by which the two main groups can be readily distinguished as fossils. Articulate brachiopods have toothed hinges and simple, vertically-oriented opening and closing muscles. Conversely, inarticulate brachiopods have weak, untoothed hinges and a more complex system of vertical and oblique (diagonal) muscles used to keep the two valves aligned. In many brachiopods, a stalk-like pedicle projects from an opening near the hinge of one of the valves, known as the pedicle or ventral valve. The pedicle, when present, keeps the animal anchored to the seabed but clear of sediment which would obstruct the opening.
Marrellomorpha are an extinct group of arthropods known from the Cambrian to the Early Devonian. They lacked mineralised hard parts, so are only known from areas of exceptional preservation, limiting their fossil distribution. The best known member is Marrella, with thousands of specimens found in the Cambrian aged Burgess Shale of Canada. The group is divided up into two major orders, Marrellida and Acercostraca. Marrellida is recognised by the possession of head shields with two or three pairs of elongate spine-like projections, and three pairs of uniramous appendages on the cephalon, while Acercostraca generally have large ovoid carapaces that cover the entire upper half of the body, and five pairs of uniramous cephalic appendages. Both groups have unbranched antennules and a segmented trunk with biramous appendages. Recent research has suggested the previously enigmatic Cambrian trliobite-like arthropods Skania and Primicaris may belong to this group. Their phylogenetic position is uncertain, various studies have alternatively placed them within in the Arachnomorpha as relatives of Artiopoda, as stem-group Mandibulata, or as stem group euarthropods.
Tommotiids are Cambrian (Terreneuvian) shelly fossils thought to belong to the Brachiopod + Phoronid lineage (Brachiozoa).
The origin of the brachiopods is uncertain; they either arose from reduction of a multi-plated tubular organism, or from the folding of a slug-like organism with a protective shell on either end. Since their Cambrian origin, the phylum rose to a Palaeozoic dominance, but dwindled during the Mesozoic.
The order Microconchida is a group of small, spirally-coiled, encrusting fossil "worm" tubes from the class Tentaculita found from the Upper Ordovician to the Middle Jurassic (Bathonian) around the world. They have lamellar calcitic shells, usually with pseudopunctae or punctae and a bulb-like origin. Many were long misidentified as the polychaete annelid Spirorbis until studies of shell microstructure and formation showed significant differences. All pre-Cretaceous "Spirorbis" fossils are now known to be microconchids. Their classification at the phylum level is still debated. Most likely they are some form of lophophorate, a group which includes phoronids, bryozoans and brachiopods. Microconchids may be closely related to the other encrusting tentaculitoid tubeworms, such as Anticalyptraea, trypanoporids and cornulitids.
Microschedia is an enigmatic fossil bilaterian known from four specimens from Lower Cambrian Amouslek Formation deposits in Morocco.
Mickwitziids are a Cambrian group of shelly fossils with originally phosphatic valves, belonging to the Brachiopod stem group, and exemplified by the genus Mickwitzia – the other genera are Heliomedusa and Setatella. The family Mickwitziidae is conceivably paraphyletic with respect to certain crown-group brachiopods.
Acanthotretella is a genus of brachiopods known from the Burgess Shale and the Guanshan fauna.
Askepasma is an extinct genus of brachiopods which existed in what is now Australia and southern China during the Lower Cambrian.
Tannuolina is a genus of tommotiid, belonging to the brachiopod stem lineage.
The camenellans, consisting of the genera Camenalla, Dailyatia, Kennardia, Kelanella and Lapworthella, are a group of Tommotiid invertebrates from the Cambrian period, reconstructed as sister to all others. They are known from isolated sclerites, but are believed to have a scleritomous, Halkieria-like construction.
Micrina is an extinct genus of tommotiids with affinities to brachiopods.
Siphonotretida is an extinct order of linguliform brachiopods in the class Lingulata. The order is equivalent to the sole superfamily Siphonotretoidea, itself containing the sole family Siphonotretidae. They were most abundant in the Late Cambrian and Early Ordovician, and were traditionally considered to have gone extinct in the Upper Ordovician (Ashgill). However, they may have been present as early as Cambrian Stage 4, and as late as the Silurian (Ludlow). Siphonotretoids were originally placed as a superfamily of Acrotretida, before being raised to their own order.
Rafinesquina is an extinct genus of large brachiopod that existed from the Darriwilian to the Ludlow epoch.
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