Cambrorhytium
major
Phylum Cnidaria
(?), Class, Order and Family Uncertain
Geological
Time: Middle Cambrian (~520 million years ago)
Size (25.4
mm = 1 inch): Fossil is 50 mm long by 8 mm across on a 118 mm by
95 mm and 62 mm by 42 mm matrix pair
Fossil Site:
Marjum Formation, Millard County, Utah
Fossil Code:
CB33
Price: $325.00
- sold
|  Description:
100 years ago, the famous discoverer of the Burgess Shale Fauna
described 3 species belonging to the priapulid genus Selkirkia.
Walcott was well known for “shoehorning” unusual
specimes into known taxa as a convenience. One of these, Selkirkia
gracilis, has been subsequently found to contain soft parts much
like the tentacles of Cnidarians, a fact that prompted Simon
Conway Morris to erect a new genus Cambrorhytium (derived from
the Latin for Drnking Horn) in 1988 in the Phyum Cnidaria (subsequent
researchers have placed them in the Class Scyphozoa). Most example
are known from the Burgess Shale but 2 examples were collected
from the Marjum Formation of Utah. It has always been found singly,
and is assumed to have led a benthic lifestyle. This RARE example
is presented in part and counterpart with only a single matrix
repair to the smaller half.
Reference:
University of Kansas Paleontological Contributions, Paper 122,
Dec 29, 1988, pp1-48.
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