Dinomischus

Dinomischus is an extinct genus of stalked filter-feeding animals within the Cambrian period, with specimens known from the Burgess Shale, the Maotianshan Shales, the Kaili Formation and the Marjum Formation. While long of uncertain affinities, recent studies have suggested it to be a stem-group ctenophore.

== History of study == In his pioneering excavations of the Burgess Shale, Charles Doolittle Walcott excavated the first, and at the time only, specimen. It had evidently caught his eye, for he had taken the trouble to carefully photograph it—but he never found the time to describe the organism, and it was not until 1977 that Simon Conway Morris described the animal. He tracked down two further specimens, collected by further expeditions by teams from Harvard and the Royal Ontario Museum, allowing him to produce a reconstruction.