Stanleycaris
Sign in to saveStanleycaris ("Stanley's shrimp") is an extinct genus of hurdiid radiodont from the Cambrian (Stage 3 to Miaolingian). The type species is Stanleycaris hirpex. Stanleycaris was described from the Stephen Formation near the Stanley Glacier and Burgess Shale locality of Canada, as well as Wheeler Formation of United States. A second species, S. qingjiangensis is known from the Qingjiang biota of China. The genus was characterized by the rake-like frontal appendages with robust inner spines.
Article
11 sectionsContents
- History of discovery
- Description
- Head
- Frontal appendage
- Oral cone
- Trunk region
- Paleoecology
- Classification
- See also
- References
- External links
Stanleycaris ("Stanley's shrimp") is an extinct genus of hurdiid radiodont from the Cambrian (Stage 3 to Miaolingian). The type species is Stanleycaris hirpex. Stanleycaris was described from the Stephen Formation near the Stanley Glacier and Burgess Shale locality of Canada, as well as Wheeler Formation of United States. A second species, S. qingjiangensis is known from the Qingjiang biota of China. The genus was characterized by the rake-like frontal appendages with robust inner spines.
==History of discovery== Stanleycaris was originally described only from frontal appendages and an oral cone. Its generic name means "Crab of Stanley Glacier"; hirpex, L. "large rake", reflects the rake-like nature of its spiny frontal appendages. However, in 2022, 268 specimens of Stanleycaris, many of which were complete, were studied, making Stanleycaris a well documented radiodont. Stanleycaris had three eyes, a bizarre configuration previously unknown among other radiodont genera; yet this head anatomy supports early differentiation among arthropod head and trunk segmentation.