Cindarella, A Museum-Quality Chengjiang Biota Arthropod
with Exceptional Soft Tissue Preservation

Description: This unusual arthropod is known as Cindarella eucalla. The species is known from very few compressed examples. The diversity of soft-tissue fossils is astonishing: algae, medusiforms, sponges, priapulids, annelid like worms, echinoderms, arthropods (including trilobites), hemichordates, chordates, and the first agnathan fish make up just a small fraction of the total. Numerous problematic forms are known as well, some of which may have represented failed attempts at diversity that did not persist to the present day.

The taxon is similar to Xandarella spectaculum, and is such it is quite trilobite-like in appearance, but differs in the lack of a calcified exoskeleton and different eye morphology. The taxon is unknown outside the Chengjiang Biota. This one is preserved in dorsolateral aspect, and both the part and counterpart are available. Many of the biramous limbs are clearly visible in this fine near-complete example which may well have more material still obscured by matrix.

Also see: Chengjiang Biota Fauna List Chengjiang Fossils