''Cathaymyrus'' is a genus of Early

Cambrian The Cambrian ( ) is the first geological period of the Paleozoic Era, and the Phanerozoic Eon. The Cambrian lasted 51.95 million years from the end of the preceding Ediacaran period 538.8 Ma (million years ago) to the beginning of the Ordov ...

chordate A chordate ( ) is a bilaterian animal belonging to the phylum Chordata ( ). All chordates possess, at some point during their larval or adult stages, five distinctive physical characteristics ( synapomorphies) that distinguish them from ot ...

known from the Chengjiang biota in Yunnan Province, China. Both species have a long segmented body with no distinctive head. The segments resemble v-shaped muscle blocks found in cephalochordates such as ''

Amphioxus The lancelets ( ), also known as amphioxi (: amphioxus ), consist of 32 described species of somewhat fish-like benthic filter feeding chordates in the subphylum Cephalochordata, class Leptocardii, and family Branchiostomatidae. Lancelets div ...

''. A long linear impression runs along the "back" of the body looking something like a chordate

notochord The notochord is an elastic, rod-like structure found in chordates. In vertebrates the notochord is an embryonic structure that disintegrates, as the vertebrae develop, to become the nucleus pulposus in the intervertebral discs of the verteb ...

. While some authors have suggested that the genus is a cephalochordate and closely related to living lancelets, other authors have disputed this due to the poor preservation of the head region, considering its placement within Chordata uncertain.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q19890829 Cambrian chordates Maotianshan shales fossils Prehistoric chordate genera Cambrian genus extinctions

See also

References