Rhombocorniculum
| Rhombocorniculum Temporal range: | |
|---|---|
Scientific classification 
| |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| (unranked): | Panarthropoda |
| Phylum: | †"Lobopodia" |
| Family: | †Hallucigeniidae |
| Genus: | †Rhombocorniculum Walliser, 1958[2] |
Rhombocorniculum is a species of small shelly fossil comprising twisted ornamented cones. It has been described from the Comley Limestone and elsewhere. R. cancellatum straddles the Atdabanian/Botomian boundary.[1] The structure of its inner layer suggests that its phosphatic fibres formed within a flexible organic matrix.[3]
Taxonomy
Three species are recognized — in stratigraphic succession: R. insolutum, R. cancellatum (=R. walliseri), and R. spinosus (=Rushtonites spinosus).[4] Landing (1995) refers R. insolutum to the strictocorniculids, along with Rushtonites.[3] Hinz (1987) considers insolutum to fall within the variability seen in cancellatum.
Affinity
Based on details of the ornament and construction, Rhombocorniculum is interpreted as the spines of a Hallucigenia-like lobopodian worm.[5]
See also
References
- ^ a b Brasier, M. D. (1986). "The succession of small shelly fossils (especially conoidal microfossils) from English Precambrian–Cambrian boundary beds". Geological Magazine. 123 (3): 237. doi:10.1017/S0016756800034737.
- ^ Otto H. Walliser (1958). "Rhombocorniculum comleyense n. gen., n. sp". Paläontologische Zeitschrift. 32 (3–4): 176–180. doi:10.1007/BF02989029.
- ^ a b Landing, E. (May 1995). "Upper Placentian-Branchian Series of Mainland Nova Scotia (Middle-Upper Lower Cambrian): Faunas, Paleoenvironments, and Stratigraphic Revision". Journal of Paleontology. 69 (3): 475–495. doi:10.1017/S0022336000034879. JSTOR 1306322.
- ^ Brasier, M. D. (1989). Towards a biostratigraphy of the earliest skeletal biotas. In J. W. Cowie & M. D. Brasier (Eds.), The Precambrian-Cambrian boundary (pp. 117–165). Oxford: Clarendon Press.
- ^ Caron, J. -B.; Smith, M. R.; Harvey, T. H. P. (2013). "Beyond the Burgess Shale: Cambrian microfossils track the rise and fall of hallucigeniid lobopodians". Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. 280 (1767): 20131613. doi:10.1098/rspb.2013.1613. PMC 3735267. PMID 23902914.