Vauxia

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Vauxia
VauxiaBurgess.jpg
Vauxia from the Walcott Quarry of the Burgess Shale (Middle Cambrian)
Scientific classification OOjs UI icon edit-ltr.svg
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Porifera
Class: Demospongiae
Order: Verongiida
Family:† Vauxiidae
Genus:† Vauxia
Walcott, 1920
Species

Vauxia is an extinct genus of demosponge that had a distinctive branching mode of growth. Each branch consisted of a network of strands. Vauxia also had a skeleton of spongin (flexible organic material) common to modern day sponges. Much like Choia and other sponges, Vauxia fed by extracting nutrients from the water.

Herpetogaster , an extinct genus of Early Cambrian animals, attached to branches of Vauxia through a flexible, extensible stolon. It is not known whether the attachment was permanent. [2]

Vauxia is named after Mount Vaux, a mountain in Yoho National Park, British Columbia. It was first described in 1920 by Charles Doolittle Walcott. [3]

Vauxia fossils are found in North America, specifically in the United States and Canada. [4]

References

  1. ↑ Botting, J. (2007). "'Cambrian' demosponges in the Ordovician of Morocco: Insights into the early evolutionary history of sponges". Geobios. 40 (6): 737–748. Bibcode:2007Geobi..40..737B. doi:10.1016/j.geobios.2007.02.006.
  2. ↑ Canada, Royal Ontario Museum and Parks (2011-06-10). "The Burgess Shale". burgess-shale.rom.on.ca. Archived from the original on 2020-06-16. Retrieved 2018-10-27.
  3. ↑ Walcott, C. D. (1920). "Cambrian geology and paleontology IV:6—Middle Cambrian Spongiae". Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections . 67: 261–364.
  4. ↑ Paleobiology Database
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