Cambrorhytium Temporal range: Chengjiang - Burgess Shale
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Scientific classification | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Cnidaria |
Order: | † Conulatae |
Clade: | † Conulariida |
Genus: | †
Cambrorhytium (Walcott 1908) Conway Morris and Robison, 1988 [1] |
Species | |
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Cambrorhytium is an enigmatic fossil genus known from the Latham Shale (California), [2] and the Chengjiang (China) and Burgess Shale (Canadian rockies) lagerstätte. [3] 350 specimens of Cambrorhytium are known from the Greater Phyllopod bed, where they comprise 0.7% of the community. [4]
Its name is from the Latin rhytium, drinking horn. [1]
The fossil is conical, with iterated linear markings on its walls, parallel to its base. Its wall is thin, and it lacks the keel that is distinctive of hyoliths. [2]
It has been interpreted as a cnidarian polyp, with the interpretation suggesting that the animal lived in the tube and extended tentacles (of which no trace has been found) from the flat aperture. [5] This is supported by similarities to Palaeoconotuba. [6] The other possible, but probably unlikely, affinity is with the hyoliths. [2]
Its similarity with the Lower Cambrian species Torellelloides giganteum may indicate a close relationship. [1] Cambrorhytium has also been compared to the fossil Archotuba [5] and Sphenothallus. [7]
C. elongatum has been described to contain an alimentary canal in a single Chinese specimen. [8]
C. major was originally described as a member of the hyolith genus Orthotheca. [9]
C. fragilis was originally included by Charles D. Walcott in the genus Selkirkia, [10] [11] – a taxonomy that was retained by later workers [12] [13] until finally questioned [14] and redescribed [1] as Cambrorhytium in the eighties.
Cambrorhytium Temporal range: Chengjiang - Burgess Shale
| |
---|---|
Scientific classification | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Cnidaria |
Order: | † Conulatae |
Clade: | † Conulariida |
Genus: | †
Cambrorhytium (Walcott 1908) Conway Morris and Robison, 1988 [1] |
Species | |
|
Cambrorhytium is an enigmatic fossil genus known from the Latham Shale (California), [2] and the Chengjiang (China) and Burgess Shale (Canadian rockies) lagerstätte. [3] 350 specimens of Cambrorhytium are known from the Greater Phyllopod bed, where they comprise 0.7% of the community. [4]
Its name is from the Latin rhytium, drinking horn. [1]
The fossil is conical, with iterated linear markings on its walls, parallel to its base. Its wall is thin, and it lacks the keel that is distinctive of hyoliths. [2]
It has been interpreted as a cnidarian polyp, with the interpretation suggesting that the animal lived in the tube and extended tentacles (of which no trace has been found) from the flat aperture. [5] This is supported by similarities to Palaeoconotuba. [6] The other possible, but probably unlikely, affinity is with the hyoliths. [2]
Its similarity with the Lower Cambrian species Torellelloides giganteum may indicate a close relationship. [1] Cambrorhytium has also been compared to the fossil Archotuba [5] and Sphenothallus. [7]
C. elongatum has been described to contain an alimentary canal in a single Chinese specimen. [8]
C. major was originally described as a member of the hyolith genus Orthotheca. [9]
C. fragilis was originally included by Charles D. Walcott in the genus Selkirkia, [10] [11] – a taxonomy that was retained by later workers [12] [13] until finally questioned [14] and redescribed [1] as Cambrorhytium in the eighties.