Biology:Opabiniidae
| Opabiniidae | |
|---|---|
| |
| Opabinia (top) and Utaurora (bottom) | |
Scientific classification 
| |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Arthropoda |
| Class: | †Dinocaridida |
| Family: | †Opabiniidae Walcott, 1912 |
| Genera | |
Opabiniidae is an extinct family of marine stem-arthropods.[1] Its type and best-known genus is Opabinia. It also contains Utaurora, and Mieridduryn. Opabiniids closely resemble radiodonts, but their frontal appendages were basally fused into a proboscis. Opabiniids also distinguishable from radiodonts by setal blades covering at least part of the body flaps and serrated caudal rami.[2]
History of study
Opabiniidae was named by Charles Doolittle Walcott in 1912, alongside its type species Opabinia. Walcott interpreted Opabiniidae as a family of anostracan crustaceans, most closely related to Thamnocephalidae.[3] Opabinia was restudied in the 1970s, and reinterpreted as a stranger animal. Stephen Jay Gould referred to Opabinia as a "weird wonder", and an illustration of Opabinia prompted laughter when it was first revealed at a paleontological conference.[4] In 2022, more Opabiniids were discorvered. That being Utaurora, and Mieridduryn.[2]
Myoscolex from Emu Bay Shale is sometimes suggested to be an opabiniid,[5] but morphological features supporting this interpretation are controversial.[6][2]
References
- ↑ Tamisiea, Jack (8 February 2022). "One of Evolution's Oddest Creatures Finds a Fossilized Family Member - Opabinia, which swam the seas of Earth's Cambrian era some 500 million years ago, was not just a one hit wonder.". The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/08/science/opabinia-fossil.html.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Pates et al. 2022.
- ↑ Walcott 1912.
- ↑ Whittington 1975.
- ↑ Briggs, D. E. G.; Nedin, C. (1997). "The Taphonomy and Affinities of the Problematic Fossil Myoscolex from the Lower Cambrian Emu Bay Shale of South Australia". Journal of Paleontology 71 (1): 22–32. doi:10.1017/S0022336000038919.
- ↑ Dzik, Jerzy (2004). "Anatomy and relationships of the Early Cambrian worm Myoscolex" (in en). Zoologica Scripta 33 (1): 57–69. doi:10.1111/j.1463-6409.2004.00136.x. ISSN 1463-6409. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1463-6409.2004.00136.x.
Works cited
- Pates, Stephen; Wolfe, Joanna M.; Lerosey-Aubril, Rudy; Daley, Allison C.; Ortega-Hernández, Javier (2022-02-09). "New opabiniid diversifies the weirdest wonders of the euarthropod stem group". Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 289 (1968). doi:10.1098/rspb.2021.2093. PMID 35135344.
- Walcott, Charles D. (1912-03-13). "Cambrian geology and paleontology II: No. 6.—Middle Cambrian Branchiopoda, Malacostraca, Trilobita, and Merostomata". Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections 57 (6).
- Whittington, H. B. (1975-06-26). "The enigmatic animal Opabinia regalis, Middle Cambrian, Burgess Shale, British Columbia". Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological Sciences 271 (910): 1–43. doi:10.1098/rstb.1975.0033. Bibcode: 1975RSPTB.271....1W.
Wikidata ☰ Q110903763 entry
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