Rare and Enigmatic Cambrian Fossil Camborhytium

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 specimens 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 Drinking Horn) in 1988 in the Phyum Cnidaria (subsequent researchers have placed them in the Class Scyphozoa). Most examples 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 is only the second example I have seen, and the first from the Wheeler Shale

Reference: University of Kansas Paleontological Contributions, Paper 122, Dec 29, 1988, pp1-48.