Juvenile Fuxianhuia Chengjiang Biota Arthropod Fossil

Fuxianhuia protensa

Phylum Arthropod

Geological Time: Early Cambrian (~525 million years ago)

Size (25.4 mm = 1 inch): Fossil is 17 mm long by 5 mm across on a 50 mm by 75 mm matrix

Fossil Site: Chengjiang Maotianshan Shales, Quiongzhusi Section, Yu’anshan Member, Heilinpu Formation, Mafang Village, Anning, Kunming, Yunnan Province, China

Fossil Code: CJF909

Price: Sold


Description: This unusual arthropod is known as Fuxianhuia protensa. The species is known from several hundred examples.

The diversity of soft-tissue Chengjiang fossils is astonishing: algae, medusiforms, sponges, priapulids, annelid-like worms, echinoderms, arthropods (including trilobites), hemichordates, chordates, and the first agnathan fish make up just a small fraction of the total. Numerous problematic forms are known as well, some of which may have represented failed attempts at diversity that did not persist to the present day.

The systematic position of this taxon is still under debate, with some considering it a basal euarthropod. The discoverer of the Chengjiang Biota and a coworker erected a new family and a new superclass called Proschizoramia which was characterized as a group at any early stage in the evolution of arthropods with biramous limbs. The taxon is unknown outside the Chengjiang Biota.

Also see: Chengjiang Biota Fauna List Chengjiang Fossils

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