Helmetia

Last updated

Helmetia
Temporal range: Cambrian
Helmetia expansa.jpg
Artist's rendition of Helmetia alongside Tegopelte gigas
Scientific classification OOjs UI icon edit-ltr.svg
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Subphylum: Trilobitomorpha
Subclass: Conciliterga
Genus: Helmetia
Species:
H. expansa
Binomial name
Helmetia expansa
Walcott, 1918

Helmetia is an extinct genus of arthropod from the middle Cambrian. Its fossils have been found in the Burgess Shale of Canada and the Jince Formation of the Czech Republic. [1]

Contents

Fossils are both rare and poorly known; the genus was described by Walcott in 1918 and has not been reexamined, though it was briefly reviewed in the 1990s and has been included in a number of cladistic analyses. It has been lumped with the arachnomorphs. One analysis has resolved the Helmetiiida as a robust clade and the closest relatives of trilobites. [2]

The most complete specimen of Helmetia is 19 cm long, and has six thoracic segments. There is a head shield and a large tail shield, making the animal leaf-shaped. Unlike trilobites, the margin of the head shield is concave, ending in a spine on each corner. There is an oval structure with two spots at the anterior center of the head shield, behind which are two eyes. The whole animal is broad and flat with a thin exoskeleton. The central region shows paired muscle scars and filamentous structures interpreted as limbs. Because the head shield, thoracic segments, and tail shield are all angular in outline and end in spines, Helmetia is unstreamlined and would likely be a slow swimmer. However, the flattened body and filamentous limbs suggest a floating or swimming lifestyle. [3] It has been interpreted as a nektonic suspension feeder. [4]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Agnostida</span> Extinct order of arthropods

Agnostida are an order of extinct arthropods which have classically been seen as a group of highly modified trilobites, though some recent research has doubted this placement. Regardless, they appear to be close relatives as part of the Artiopoda. They are present in the Lower Cambrian fossil record along with trilobites from the Redlichiida, Corynexochida, and Ptychopariida orders, and were highly diverse throughout the Cambrian. Agnostidan diversity severely declined during the Cambrian-Ordovician transition, and the last agnostidans went extinct in the Late Ordovician.

<i>Hallucigenia</i> Genus of Cambrian animals

Hallucigenia is a genus of lobopodian, known from Cambrian aged fossils in Burgess Shale-type deposits in Canada and China, and from isolated spines around the world. The generic name reflects the type species' unusual appearance and eccentric history of study; when it was erected as a genus, H. sparsa was reconstructed as an enigmatic animal upside down and back to front. Lobopodians are a grade of Paleozoic panarthropods from which the velvet worms, water bears, and arthropods arose.

<i>Opabinia</i> Extinct stem-arthropod species found in Cambrian fossil deposits

Opabinia regalis is an extinct, stem group arthropod found in the Middle Cambrian Burgess Shale Lagerstätte of British Columbia. Opabinia was a soft-bodied animal, measuring up to 7 cm in body length, and its segmented trunk had flaps along the sides and a fan-shaped tail. The head shows unusual features: five eyes, a mouth under the head and facing backwards, and a clawed proboscis that probably passed food to the mouth. Opabinia probably lived on the seafloor, using the proboscis to seek out small, soft food. Fewer than twenty good specimens have been described; 3 specimens of Opabinia are known from the Greater Phyllopod bed, where they constitute less than 0.1% of the community.

<i>Marrella</i> Extinct genus of Arthropods

Marrella is an extinct genus of marrellomorph arthropod known from the Middle Cambrian of North America and Asia. It is the most common animal represented in the Burgess Shale of British Columbia, Canada, with tens of thousands of specimens collected. Much rarer remains are also known from deposits in China.

<i>Sidneyia</i> Extinct genus of arthropods

Sidneyia is an extinct arthropod known from fossils found from the Early to the Mid Cambrian of China and the Mid Cambrian Burgess Shale of British Columbia, Canada.

<i>Yohoia</i> Extinct genus of arthropods

Yohoia is an extinct genus of megacheiran arthropod from the Cambrian period that has been found as fossils in the Burgess Shale formation of British Columbia, Canada. The type species, Yohoia tenuis, was described in 1912 by Walcott, who considered it an anostracan crustacean. 711 specimens of Yohoia are known from the Greater Phyllopod bed, where they comprise 1.35% of the community. In 2015, Conway Morris et al. reported another species, Y. utahana, from the Marjum Formation, Utah.

<i>Anomalocaris</i> Extinct genus of cambrian radiodont

Anomalocaris is an extinct genus of radiodont, an order of early-diverging stem-group arthropods.

<i>Canadaspis</i> Extinct genus of arthropods

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.

<i>Saperion</i> Extinct genus of arthropod

Saperion is an extinct genus of trilobite-like arthropod. It lived during the late Atdabanian stage, which lasted from 521 to 514 million years ago during the early part of the Cambrian Period. It was found in the Maotianshan Shales of Yunnan, China. Similar to the closely-related Skioldia and Tegopelte, the head shield and trunk tergites were fused into a single plate. There are about 19 furrows indicating the original trunk segments. a small anterior sclerite articulated to the front of its head. A pair of antennae and lateral eyes located ventrally behind the anterior sclerite, lateral to the hypostome. Saperion reached 151 mm in length and had nearly 25 pairs of biramous limbs for walking.

<i>Odaraia</i> Extinct genus of crustaceans

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.

A number of assemblages bear fossil assemblages similar in character to that of the Burgess Shale. While many are also preserved in a similar fashion to the Burgess Shale, the term "Burgess Shale-type fauna" covers assemblages based on taxonomic criteria only.

<i>Acanthomeridion</i> Extinct genus of Cambrian Era Arthropod

Acanthomeridion is an extinct arthropod found in the Chengjiang fauna deposits of China. In 1997, it was placed in its own, monotypic family, Acanthomeridiidae. It is known from eight specimens, all found in China.

<i>Sarotrocercus</i> Extinct genus of Cambrian organisms

Sarotrocercus is a small Cambrian arthropod known from Burgess shale, reaching a centimetre or two in length (0.39–0.79 in). Sarotrocercus is only known from 7 specimens. It may lie in the arthropod crown group, and a recent study has revised some points of its original description.

<i>Alalcomenaeus</i> Extinct genus of arthropods

Alalcomenaeus is one of the most widespread and longest-surviving arthropod genera of the Early and Middle Cambrian. Known from over 300 specimens in the Burgess Shale and the Chengjiang biota. It is a member of the family Leanchoiliidae in the group Megacheira.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Megacheira</span> Extinct class of arthropods

Megacheira is an extinct class of predatory arthropods defined by their possession of spined "great appendages". Their taxonomic position is controversial, with studies either considering them stem-group euarthropods, or stem-group chelicerates. The homology of the great appendages to the cephalic appendages of other arthropods is also controversial. Uncontested members of the group were present in marine environments worldwide from the lower to middle Cambrian.

<i>Haikoucaris</i> Extinct genus of arthropods

Haikoucaris is a genus of megacheiran arthropod that contains the single species Haikoucaris ercaiensis. It was discovered in the Cambrian Chengjiang biota of China.

<i>Kiisortoqia</i> Extinct genus of arthropods

Kiisortoqia soperi is an extinct species of arthropod from the Early Cambrian Sirius Passet Lagerstätte in Greenland. While it had a superficially trilobite-like bodyform, it also possessed large frontal appendages similar to those of radiodonts.

<i>Skeemella</i>

Skeemella clavula is an elongate animal from what is now the Middle Cambrian Wheeler Shale and Marjum lagerstätte of Utah. It has been classified with the vetulicolians.

<i>Tegopelte</i> Extinct genus of arthropods

Tegopelte gigas is a species of large soft-bodied arthropod known from two specimens found in the Middle Cambrian Burgess Shale of British Columbia, Canada.

<i>Retifacies</i> Species of arthropod

Retifacies abnormalis is an extinct arthropod that lived in the lower Cambrian. Its fossil remains have been found in the Maotianshan Shales of Yunnan, China. It is a member of the Artiopoda, and closely related to Pygmaclypeatus.

References

  1. Kordule Chlupáč (2002). "Arthropods of Burgess Shale type from the Middle Cambrian of Bohemia (Czech Republic)". Bulletin of the Czech Geological Survey. 77: 167–182.
  2. Edgecombe, Gregory D.; Ramsköld, Lars (1999). "Relationships of Cambrian Arachnata and the Systematic Position of Trilobita". Journal of Paleontology. 73 (2): 263–287. Bibcode:1999JPal...73..263E. doi:10.1017/S0022336000027761. JSTOR   1306784. S2CID   84029615.
  3. Canada, Royal Ontario Museum and Parks (2011-06-10). "The Burgess Shale". burgess-shale.rom.on.ca. Retrieved 2018-10-28.
  4. CARON, J.-B. and JACKSON, D. A. 2008. Paleoecology of the Greater Phyllopod Bed community, Burgess Shale. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 258, 222–256.

Further reading