''Leanchoilia'' is an megacheiran

arthropod Arthropods (, (gen. ποδός)) are invertebrate animals with an exoskeleton, a Segmentation (biology), segmented body, and paired jointed appendages. Arthropods form the phylum Arthropoda. They are distinguished by their jointed limbs and Arth ...

known from

Cambrian The Cambrian Period ( ; sometimes symbolized Ꞓ) was the first geological period of the Paleozoic Era, and of the Phanerozoic Eon. The Cambrian lasted 53.4 million years from the end of the preceding Ediacaran Period 538.8 million years ag ...

deposits of the

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 fos ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tota ...

and the

Chengjiang biota The Maotianshan Shales are a series of Early Cambrian deposits in the Chiungchussu Formation, famous for their '' Konservat Lagerstätten'', deposits known for the exceptional preservation of fossilized organisms or traces. The Maotianshan Shales ...

of China. It was about long and had long, whip-like feelers mounted on frontal arm-like appendages. Its internal organs are occasionally preserved within the substrate in three dimensions. Seven

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of ...

are tentatively accepted today: ''L. superlata'' (the

type species In zoological nomenclature, a type species (''species typica'') is the species name with which the name of a genus or subgenus is considered to be permanently taxonomically associated, i.e., the species that contains the biological type specimen( ...

), ''L. persephone'' and ''L. protogonia'' from the Burgess Shale, ''L. illecebrosa'' and ''L. obesa'' from the Chengjiang biota, 'L. robisoni'' from Kaili, and ''L.''? ''hanceyi'' from the

Spence Shale The Spence Shale is the middle member of the Langston Formation in southeastern Idaho and northeastern Utah. It is exposed in the Bear River Range, the Wasatch Range and the Wellsville Mountains. It is known for its abundant Cambrian trilo ...

. ''L. superlata'' and ''L. persephone'' may however be examples of

sexual dimorphism Sexual dimorphism is the condition where the sexes of the same animal and/or plant species exhibit different morphological characteristics, particularly characteristics not directly involved in reproduction. The condition occurs in most an ...

. 55 specimens of ''Leanchoilia'' are known from the Greater

Phyllopod bed The Phyllopod bed, designated by USNM locality number 35k, is the most famous fossil-bearing member of the Burgess Shale fossil '' Lagerstätte''. It was quarried by Charles Walcott from 1911–1917 (and later named Walcott Quarry), and was ...

, where they comprise 0.1% of the community.

References

External links

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''Leanchoilia illecebrosa'' Ancient Arthropod from Chengjiang
The Virtual Fossil Museum Megacheira Burgess Shale fossils Maotianshan shales fossils Prehistoric arthropod genera Taxa named by Charles Doolittle Walcott Fossil taxa described in 1912 Cambrian genus extinctions Wheeler Shale Cambrian arthropods {{paleo-arthropod-stub