''Fengzhengia'' is an extinct genus of arthropod known from a
single species, ''Fengzhengia mamingae'' from the
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 ...
aged
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
Yunnan
Yunnan , () is a landlocked province in the southwest of the People's Republic of China. The province spans approximately and has a population of 48.3 million (as of 2018). The capital of the province is Kunming. The province borders the ...
, China. It is thought to be a basal arthropod, as one of the most basal members of
Deuteropoda. Like other basal deuteropods such as ''
Kylinxia
''Kylinxia'' is a genus of extinct arthropod described in 2020. It was described from six specimens discovered in Yu'anshan Formation (Maotianshan Shales) in southern China. The specimens are assigned to one species ''Kylinxia zhangi.'' Dated to ...
'', ''Fengzhengia'' has an upward curling pair of "frontal appendages", contrasting with the downward curving pair of frontal appendages possessed by
radiodonts. The head has a pair of stalked eyes. The trunk had 15
tergites the first nine of which had upward facing spines, with the trunk terminating with a tail fan. The trunk seemingly had pairs of
biramous limbs, with paddle-shaped
exopods. It is thought to have been nektobenthic (swimming just above the sediment), and either a scavenger or a predator.
References
{{Taxonbar, from=Q115801577
Cambrian arthropods
Fossils of China
Fossil taxa described in 2022
Prehistoric arthropod genera