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Echmatocrinus
''Echmatocrinus brachiatus'' is an extinct species of Cambrian animal which resembles a crinoid or an octocoral. Its exact taxonomy is still a subject of debate. It is known only from the Burgess shale. Around 20 specimens of ''Echmatocrinus'' are known; these comprise < 0.02% of the community. The creature was a little like an inverted cone, with a crown of seven to ten tentacles. Each tentacle was covered with small extensions. The cone itself was covered with irregularly arranged mineralised plates, whose texture recalls that of the Burgess Shale echinoderm '' Walcottidiscus''. The organisms lived a solitary lifestyle, although juveniles are sometimes attached to (or budding from) adults.


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Crinoid
Crinoids are marine invertebrates that make up the class Crinoidea. Crinoids that remain attached to the sea floor by a stalk in their adult form are commonly called sea lilies, while the unstalked forms, called feather stars or comatulids, are members of the largest crinoid order, Comatulida. Crinoids are echinoderms in the phylum Echinodermata, which also includes the starfish, brittle stars, sea urchins and sea cucumbers. They live in both shallow water and in depths of over . Adult crinoids are characterised by having the mouth located on the upper surface. This is surrounded by feeding arms, and is linked to a U-shaped gut, with the anus being located on the oral disc near the mouth. Although the basic echinoderm pattern of fivefold symmetry can be recognised, in most crinoids the five arms are subdivided into ten or more. These have feathery pinnules and are spread wide to gather planktonic particles from the water. At some stage in their lives, most crinoids have a sho ...
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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 Ordovician Period 486.85 Ma. Most of the continents lay in the southern hemisphere surrounded by the vast Panthalassa Ocean. The assembly of Gondwana during the Ediacaran and early Cambrian led to the development of new convergent plate boundaries and continental-margin arc magmatism along its margins that helped drive up global temperatures. Laurentia lay across the equator, separated from Gondwana by the opening Iapetus Ocean. The Cambrian marked a profound change in life on Earth; prior to the Period, the majority of living organisms were small, unicellular and poorly preserved. Complex, multicellular organisms gradually became more common during the Ediacaran, but it was not until the Cambrian that fossil diversity seems to rapidly ...
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Octocoral
Octocorallia, along with Hexacorallia, is one of the two extant classes of Anthozoa. It comprises over 3,000 species of marine and brackish animals consisting of colonial polyps with 8-fold symmetry, commonly referred informally as "soft corals". It was previously known by the now unaccepted scientific names Alcyonacea and Gorgonacea, both deprecated , and by the also deprecated name of Alcyonaria, in earlier times. Its only two orders are Malacalcyonacea and Scleralcyonacea, which include corals such as those under the common names of blue corals, sea pens, and gorgonians (sea fans and sea whips). These animals have an internal skeleton secreted by their mesoglea, and polyps with tipically eight tentacles and eight mesenteries. As is the case with all cnidarians, their complex life cycle includes a motile, planktonic phase (a larva called planula), and a later characteristic sessile phase. Octocorals have existed at least since the Ordovician period, as shown by Maurit ...
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Burgess Shale
The Burgess Shale is a fossil-bearing deposit exposed in the Canadian Rockies of British Columbia, Canada. It is famous for the exceptional preservation of the soft parts of its fossils. At old (middle Cambrian), it is one of the earliest fossil beds containing soft-part imprints. The rock unit is a black shale and crops out at a number of localities near the town of Field in Yoho National Park and the Kicking Horse Pass. Another outcrop is in Kootenay National Park 42 km to the south. History and significance The Burgess Shale was discovered by palaeontologist Charles Walcott on 30 August 1909, towards the end of the season's fieldwork. He returned in 1910 with his sons, daughter, and wife, establishing a quarry on the flanks of Fossil Ridge. The significance of soft-bodied preservation, and the range of organisms he recognised as new to science, led him to return to the quarry almost every year until 1924. At that point, aged 74, he had amassed over 65,000 s ...
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Walcottidiscus
''Walcottidiscus'' is a genus of pentagonally shaped echinoderms known from the Middle Cambrian Burgess Shale. 16 specimens of ''Walcottidiscus'' are known from the Greater Phyllopod bed, where they comprise < 0.1% of the community. The genus is thought to be the earliest known, more or less undisputed edrioasteroid. The pentamerous '' Arkarua'' is older, dating from the late
Precambrian The Precambrian ( ; or pre-Cambrian, sometimes abbreviated pC, or Cryptozoic) is the earliest part of Earth's history, set before the current Phanerozoic Eon. The Precambrian is so named because it preceded the Cambrian, the first period of t ...

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Treatise On Invertebrate Paleontology
The ''Treatise on Invertebrate Paleontology,'' published from 1953–2007 by the Geological Society of America and the University of Kansas, then 2009–present by the University of Kansas Paleontological Institute, is a definitive multi-authored work of currently 55 volumes, written by more than 300 paleontologists, and covering every phylum, class, order, family, and genus of fossil and extant (still living) invertebrate animals. The prehistoric invertebrates are described as to their taxonomy, morphology, paleoecology, stratigraphic and paleogeographic range. However, taxa with no fossil record whatsoever have just a very brief listing. Publication of the decades-long ''Treatise on Invertebrate Paleontology'' is a work-in-progress; and therefore it is not yet complete: For example, there is no volume yet published regarding the post- Paleozoic era caenogastropods (a molluscan group including the whelk and periwinkle). Furthermore, when needed, previously published vol ...
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Burgess Shale Fossils
The fossils of the Burgess Shale, like the Burgess Shale itself, are fossils that formed around 505 million years ago in the mid-Cambrian, Cambrian period. They were discovered in Canada in 1886, and Charles Doolittle Walcott collected over 65,000 specimens in a series of field trips up to the alpine site from 1909 to 1924. After a period of neglect from the 1930s to the early 1960s, new excavations and re-examinations of Walcott's collection continue to reveal new species, and statistical analysis suggests that additional discoveries will continue for the foreseeable future. Stephen Jay Gould's 1989 book ''Wonderful Life (book), Wonderful Life'' describes the history of discovery up to the early 1980s, although his analysis of the implications for evolution has been contested. The fossil beds are in a series of shale layers, averaging and totalling about in thickness. These layers were deposited against the face of a high undersea limestone cliff. All these features were ...
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Enigmatic Prehistoric Animal Genera
Enigmatic is an adjective meaning "mysterious" or "puzzling". It may also refer to: * ''Enigmatic'' (album), a 1970 album by Czesław Niemen * '' Enigmatic: Calling'', a 2005 album by Norwegian progressive metal band Pagan's Mind * Enigmatic scale, musical scale used by Verdi and others * "The Enigmatic", a song by Joe Satriani on the album '' Not of This Earth'' See also * Enigmatic leaf turtle, a species of Asian leaf turtle * Enigmatic moray eel, a species found in the Pacific and Indian Oceans * ''Glaresis ''Glaresis'' is a genus of beetles, sometimes called "Enigmatic scarab beetles", in its own family, Glaresidae. It is closely related to, and was formerly included in, the family Scarabaeidae. Although its members occur in arid and sandy areas wo ...'', a genus of beetles sometimes called "enigmatic scarab beetles" * Enigma (other) {{disambig ...
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Fossil Taxa Described In 1973
A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserved in amber, hair, petrified wood and DNA remnants. The totality of fossils is known as the ''fossil record''. Though the fossil record is incomplete, numerous studies have demonstrated that there is enough information available to give a good understanding of the pattern of diversification of life on Earth. In addition, the record can predict and fill gaps such as the discovery of ''Tiktaalik'' in the arctic of Canada. Paleontology includes the study of fossils: their age, method of formation, and evolutionary significance. Specimens are sometimes considered to be fossils if they are over 10,000 years old. The oldest fossils are around 3.48 billion years to 4.1 billion years old. Early edition, published online before print. The ob ...
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