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Showing results for tags 'archaeopriapulida'.
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I was once a teaching assistant for a Diversity of Life course and it really left an indelible imprint on my awareness of diversity in general, as well as consolidated my fondness for all living things that began in childhood. It's incredible how successful the "worm" body plan has been and how this has been such an integral bauplan since the earliest phases of animal life. Being a bilaterian essentially equates to a wormy relative (i.e. acorn worms for we deuterostomes) so in honour of that on this auspicious hump day, please share your worms - the more priapulid the better I'm not a hundred percent certain of the current systematics but these two samples from the early Cambrian Chengjiang Biota (Maotianshan Shales, Heilinpu Formation, China) were once considered stem priapulids (or nematomorphs). They are the iconic Maotianshania cylindrica and Cricocosmia jinningensis respectfully. I got these back when I wasn't 100% sure they were offering real Cambrian fossils so bought carefully and sparingly until I was able to prove they were in fact real. I let so many great fossils pass me by out of mistrust and I'm kicking myself to this day. The preparation was pretty raw but they're still amazing under magnification. And the other fossil is a beautiful peanut worm Lecthaylus gregarius from the Lockport Shale, Blue Island, Illinois (Silurian). Phallic-shaped worms with eversible pharynx or proboscis like these were likely the first "predators" in the earliest animal communities before they too were sucked up in the ongoing arms race by enigmatic arthropods like Anomalocarids. Happy hump day everyone. https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0052200 https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/cambrian--worms-were-voracious-opportunists cheers Marcus
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Gangtoucunia, a member of the Guanshan fauna, is a genus of worm-like creatures originally assigned to the Archaeopriapulids for uncertain reasons. However, according to studies by Zhang et al, 2022, these are creatures with cnidarian affinity within the subphyllum Medusozoa. Emended diagnosis from Zhang et al., 2022 p. 2: "Elongated, tubular polypoid cnidarian that secreted an organophosphatic dwelling tube. The external surface of the tube is transversely annulated with dense and irregular growth lines and has a basal, discshaped holdfast. The tube is elongate with a slight, gradual proximal tapering. The polyp has a single whorl of circumoral tentacles of unknown total length. The polyp body is externally smooth. Internally, the gut is divided by numerous longitudinal septa that partition an elongate gut extending along the preserved length of the body." References: Luo H L, Hu S X, Chen L Z, et al. Early Cambrian Chengjiang Fauna from Kunming Region, China (in Chinese with English summary). Kunming: Yunnan Science and Technology Press, 1999. 129 S. X. HU, M. Y. Zhu, M. Steiner, H. L. Luo, F. C. Zhao and Q. Liu. 2010. Biodiversity and taphonomy of the Early Cambrian Guanshan biota, eastern Yunnan. Science China Earth Sciences 53(12):1765-1773 H.-L. Luo, L. Yong, S.-X. Hu, X.-P. Fu, S.-Q. Hou, X.-Y. Liu, L.-Z. Chen, F.-J. Li, J.-Y. Pang and Q. Liu. 2008. Early Cambrian Malong Fauna and Guanshan Fauna from Eastern Yunnan, China 1-134. Zhang G, Parry LA, Vinther J, Ma X. 2022 Exceptional soft tissue preservation reveals a cnidarian affinity for a Cambrian phosphatic tubicolous enigma. Proc. R. Soc. B 289: 20221623. https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2022.1623
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