Chengjiang Biota Brachiopod with Attached Pedicle

Description: This small brachiopod is known as Diandongia pista. The species is a relatively common member of the biota, with most preserved with some 3-dimensional detail (notice the growth rings evident on the shells). The discovery of the Chengjiang Biota by Hou Xian-guang in 1984 brought to light an exceptional largerstatte of the time known as the Cambrian Explosion. The diversity of soft-tissue 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. It is thought that this species lived epifaunally, attached by a short pedicle. Note the presence of the lophophore as a U-shaped structure near where the pedicle joins the body.