| Xandarella Temporal range: | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Fossil of X. spectaculum | |
Scientific classification  | |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Arthropoda |
| Clade: | † Artiopoda |
| Subphylum: | † Trilobitomorpha |
| (unranked): | † Xandarellida |
| Genus: | † Xandarella Hou et al. 1991 |
| Type species | |
| Xandarella spectaculum Hou et al. 1991 | |
Xandarella is an extinct genus of xandarellid artiopodan known from the Cambrian of China, the type species Xandarella spectaculum was described in 1991 from the Cambrian Stage 3 aged Chengjiang Biota in China. [1] Although an additional species Xandarella mauretanica was described from the Cambrian Stage 5 Tatelt Formation in Morocco in 2017, which preserved only the ventral anatomy, [2] it is later found that is a species of trilobite Gigoutella instead. [3] Like other xandarellids, the exoskeleton is unmineralised. The cephalon has pronounced eye slits, presumably derived from ancestral ventral stalked eyes. [4]
