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A possible Cambrian stem-group gnathiferan-chaetognath from the Weeks Formation (Miaolingian) of Utah

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 March 2020

Simon Conway Morris ,
Ru D.A. Smith ,
Jennifer F. Hoyal Cuthill Open the ORCID record for Jennifer F. Hoyal Cuthill [Opens in a new window] ,
Enrico Bonino  and
Rudy Lerosey-Aubril
Simon Conway Morris
Affiliation:
Department of Earth Sciences, University of Cambridge, Downing Street, CB2 3EQ, UK
Ru D.A. Smith
Affiliation:
Menara Shell, 211 Jalan Tun Sambanthan, Kuala Lumpur, 50470, Malaysia
Jennifer F. Hoyal Cuthill
Affiliation:
Department of Earth Sciences, University of Cambridge, Downing Street, CB2 3EQ, UK Institute of Analytics and Data Science and School of Life Sciences, University of Essex, Wivenhoe Park, ColchesterCO4 3SQ, UK
Enrico Bonino
Affiliation:
Back to the Past Museum, Carretera Cancún, Puerto Morelos, Quintana Roo77580, Mexico
Rudy Lerosey-Aubril
Affiliation:
Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University, 26 Oxford Street, Cambridge, Massachusetts02138, USA
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Abstract

In recent years the plethora of ‘weird wonders,’ the vernacular for the apparently extinct major body plans documented in many of the Cambrian Lagerstätten, has been dramatically trimmed. This is because various taxa have been either assigned to known phyla or accommodated in larger monophyletic assemblages. Nevertheless, a number of Cambrian taxa retain their enigmatic status. To this intriguing roster we add Dakorhachis thambus n. gen. n. sp. from the Miaolingian (Guzhangian) Weeks Formation Konservat-Lagerstätte of Utah. Specimens consist of an elongate body that lacks appendages but is apparently segmented. A prominent feeding apparatus consists of a circlet of triangular teeth, while posteriorly there are three distinct skeletal components. D. thambus is interpreted as an ambush predator and may have been partially infaunal. The wider affinities of this new taxon remain conjectural, but it is suggested that it may represent a stem-group member of the Gnathifera, today represented by the gnathostomulids, micrognathozoans, and rotifers and possibly with links to the chaetognaths.

UUID: http://zoobank.org/22113e6b-f79e-4d06-9483-144618a61327

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Paleontology , Volume 94 , Issue 4 , July 2020 , pp. 624 - 636
Copyright
Copyright © 2020, The Paleontological Society

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