Tanglangia longicaudata Arthropod and Selkirkia sinica Piapulid Worm

Exceptionally Rare Chengjiang Biota Fossil Association

Tanglangia longicaudata

Phylum Arthropoda, Megachira

Selkirkia sinica

Phylum Priapulida

Geological Time: Early Cambrian, (~ 525 million years ago)

Size: Taglangia: 15 mm long; Selkirkia: 13 mm long; Matrix: 65 mm by 55 mm

Fossil Site: Chengjiang Maotianshan Shale, Quiongzhusi Section, Yu’anshan Member, Heilinpu Formation Mafang Village, Anning, Kunming, Yunnan Province, China

Code: CJF931

Price: Sold


Tanglangia longicaudata Arthropod and Selkirkia sinica Piapulid WormDescription: This unusual arthropod is known as Tanglangia longicaudata. With the discovery of the Chengjiang Biota by Hou Xian-guang in 1984, the world became aware of a great storehouse of material from early in the Cambrian SelkirkiaExplosion. 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 specimen is a member of the “great appendage arthropods” known as the opabinids after Opabinia from the Burgess Shale Fauna. It is most closely allied with Jianfengia, the most primitive of the opabinids. It differs primarily in having fewer segments and a long telson. TanglangiaThe largest complete examples can reach 35 mm, with the telson in some cases being as long as the abdomen. The taxon is unknown outside the Chengjiang Biota. This one is incomplete, showing only the posterior half of this unusual arthropod in greatest detail, although almost the entire specimen is represented; a complete specimen has 13 body segments. The other specimen is a member of the Priapulida. The priapulids are a group of non-segmented worms whose modern-day examples can reach 30 cm in length, and live in both shallow and deep marine sands as carnivores. The terminal mouth bears cone-shaped projections called scalids by which the worm would snare its prey. This taxon is only known from Chengjiang.

Also see: Chengjiang Biota Fauna List Chengjiang Fossils

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Tanglangia longicaudata Arthropod and Selkirkia sinica Piapulid Worm


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