Rare Putative Kaili Biota Medusoid Rotadiscus

Description: The Kaili Biota of Guiznou Province of China, like the fantastic Chengjiang and Burgess Shale Fauna, preserve some of the earliest radiations of complex life known on the planet. The formation is some 220 m in thickness and spans the Late Early to Early Middle Cambrian. As such it is intermediate in age between the Changjiang and Burgess Shale Faunas. Representatives of some 110 genera are known, representing 11 phyla. The Kaili Biota includes both soft-bodied and skeletonized animals, and is dominated by trilobites. It shares roughly 30 genera in common with Chengjiang and nearly 40 with the Burgess Shale. There are also a number of eocrinoid Echinoderms, with three members of the gogiid genus Sinoeocrinus predominating. Members of this faunal assemblage are very rarely offered for sale. This one has affinities with the enigmatic Eldonia (see my other offerings), and is known from some 200 examples, most of which are incomplete. The dark U-shaped structure is the gut. I’ve included an artist’s rendering of the similar Eldonia from the slightly older Chengjiang Biota.