Biology:Rhombocorniculum

From HandWiki
Short description: Extinct genus of shelled animals

Rhombocorniculum
Temporal range: Cambrian Stage 2–Cambrian Stage 3[1]
Scientific classification e
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
(unranked): Panarthropoda
Phylum: "Lobopodia"
Family: Hallucigeniidae
Genus: Rhombocorniculum
Walliser, 1958[2]

Rhombocorniculum is a species of small shelly fossil comprising twisted ornamented cones. It has been described from the Comely limestone and elsewhere. R. cancellatum straddles the Atdabanian/Botomian boundary.[1] The structure of its inner layer suggests that its phosphatic fibres formed within a flexible organic matrix.[3]

Taxonomy

Three species are recognized — in stratigraphic succession: R. insolutum, R. cancellatum (=R. walliseri), and R. spinosus (=Rushtonites spinosus).[4] Landing (1995) refers R. insolutum to the strictocorniculids, along with Rushtonites.[3] Hinz (1987) considers insolutum to fall within the variability seen in cancellatum.

Affinity

Based on details of the ornament and construction, Rhombocorniculum is interpreted as the spines of a Hallucigenia-like lobopodian worm.[5]

See also

References

  1. 1.0 1.1 Brasier, M. D. (1986). "The succession of small shelly fossils (especially conoidal microfossils) from English Precambrian–Cambrian boundary beds". Geological Magazine 123 (3): 237. doi:10.1017/S0016756800034737. 
  2. Otto H. Walliser (1958). "Rhombocorniculum comleyense n. gen., n. sp". Paläontologische Zeitschrift 32 (3–4): 176–180. doi:10.1007/BF02989029. 
  3. 3.0 3.1 Landing, E. (May 1995). "Upper Placentian-Branchian Series of Mainland Nova Scotia (Middle-Upper Lower Cambrian): Faunas, Paleoenvironments, and Stratigraphic Revision". Journal of Paleontology 69 (3): 475–495. doi:10.1017/S0022336000034879. 
  4. Brasier, M. D. (1989). Towards a biostratigraphy of the earliest skeletal biotas. In J. W. Cowie & M. D. Brasier (Eds.), The Precambrian-Cambrian boundary (pp. 117–165). Oxford: Clarendon Press.. 
  5. Caron, J. -B.; Smith, M. R.; Harvey, T. H. P. (2013). "Beyond the Burgess Shale: Cambrian microfossils track the rise and fall of hallucigeniid lobopodians.". Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 280 (1767): 20131613. doi:10.1098/rspb.2013.1613. PMID 23902914. 

Wikidata ☰ Q7321298 entry