Opabiniidae
Description | Opabinia regalis is an extinct, stem group arthropod found in the Middle Cambrian Burgess Shale Lagerstätte of British Columbia, Canada. It flourished from 505 million years ago to 487 million years ago during the Cambrian Period of the Paleozoic Era. It measured 2-3 inches in length and is presumed to have been a carnivore. Fewer than twenty good specimens have been described; 3 specimens of Opabinia are known from the Greater Phyllopod bed, where they constitute less than 0.1% of the community. Opabinia was a soft-bodied animal, averaging about 5.7 cm in length (excluding proboscis), and its segmented body had lobes along the sides and a fan-shaped tail. The head shows unusual features: five eyes, a mouth under the head and facing backwards, and a proboscis that probably passed food to the mouth. Opabinia probably lived on the seafloor, using the proboscis to seek out small, soft food. From Wikipedia article at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opabiniidae, which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike License 3.0. | |||||||
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Source Data |
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Rank | family | |||||||
Taxonomy (GBIF) | Life : Animalia : Arthropoda : Opabiniidae | |||||||
Taxonomic Status (GBIF) | accepted | |||||||
Classification (GBIF) |
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Scientific Name | Opabiniidae | |||||||
Wikipedia | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opabiniidae |
Subtaxa
Name | Status | Common Name(s) | Fossil Occurrences | Oldest | Youngest |
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Opabinia ✝ genus | accepted (GBIF) listed (PBDB) | 2 | 513 Ma Cambrian | 513 Ma Cambrian |
Obsolete Names
Name | Source | Taxon Rank | Taxonomy |
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Opabinidae | GBIF | family | Animalia : Arthropoda : Opabinidae |
References
Benton, M.J. (ed). (1993). The Fossil Record 2. Chapman & Hall, London, 845 pp. - via The Interim Register of Marine and Nonmarine Genera |
extinct group - via The Interim Register of Marine and Nonmarine Genera |