Rhombocorniculum

Rhombocorniculum
Temporal range: Cambrian Stage 2–Cambrian Stage 3[1]
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
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 Comely 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

  1. 1 2 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.
  2. ↑ Otto H. Walliser. "Rhombocorniculum comleyense n. gen., n. sp". Paläontologische Zeitschrift. 32 (3–4): 176–180. doi:10.1007/BF02989029.
  3. 1 2 Landing, E. (May 1995). "Upper Placentian-Branchian Series of Mainland Nova Scotia (Middle-Upper Lower Cambrian): Faunas, Paleoenvironments, and Stratigraphic Revision". Journal of Paleontology. Paleontological Society. 69 (3): 475–495. JSTOR 1306322.
  4. ↑ 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.
  5. ↑ 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 3735267Freely accessible. PMID 23902914.
External identifiers for Rhombocorniculum
Encyclopedia of Life 31729158
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