''Marocella'' is a conical shelly fossil of uncertain affinity (probably a

mollusc Mollusca is a phylum of protostome, protostomic invertebrate animals, whose members are known as molluscs or mollusks (). Around 76,000 extant taxon, extant species of molluscs are recognized, making it the second-largest animal phylum ...

) known from

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 ...

strata of Europe, Morocco, Australia and Antarctica.

Morphology

Limpet-like ''Marocella '' is a low conical shell with concentric ridges that grew to a couple of centimetres in length.

Affinity

''Marocella'' is thought to be a mollusc, although its position within this

phylum In biology, a phylum (; : phyla) is a level of classification, or taxonomic rank, that is below Kingdom (biology), kingdom and above Class (biology), class. Traditionally, in botany the term division (taxonomy), division has been used instead ...

is undetermined. Relationship to the

halkieriids The halkieriids are a group of fossil organisms from the Lower to Middle Cambrian. Their eponymous genus is ''Halkieria'' , which has been found on almost every continent in Lower to Mid Cambrian deposits, forming a large component of the smal ...

has also been considered.

Ecology

Some specimens show evidence of repairing damage caused by predators. It probably moved around on the sea floor. It was geographically widespread.

Distribution

Fossils of ''Marocella'' have been found in:''Marocella''
at

Fossilworks Fossilworks was a portal which provides query, download, and analysis tools to facilitate access to the Paleobiology Database, a large relational database assembled by hundreds of paleontologists from around the world. History Fossilworks was cr ...

.org *

Shackleton Limestone The Shackleton Limestone is a Cambrian limestone formation of the Byrd Group of the Ross Dependency in Antarctica. The age of the formation is established to be Cambrian Stage 3, dated at ranging from 520 to 516 Ma. This period correlates with t ...

, Antarctica * Mernmerna Formation and Parara Limestone, Australia * Jbel Wawrmast Formation, Morocco * Sparagmite Formation, Norway *

Láncara Formation Láncara is a municipality in the province of Lugo, in the autonomous community of Galicia, Spain. It belongs to the comarca of Sarria. Notable people * Ángel Castro y Argiz (1875–1956) – Galician-born Cuban farmer and businessman; kn ...

, Spain

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q6772285 Cambrian animals Prehistoric mollusc genera Enigmatic protostome taxa Fossils of Antarctica Fossils of Australia Cambrian animals of Africa Fossils of Morocco Cambrian animals of Europe Cambrian Norway Fossils of Norway Fossils of Spain Fossil taxa described in 1986 Cambrian genus extinctions