Palaeoanatomy and biological affinities of a Cambrian deuterostome (Stylophora)

Sébastien Clausen () and Andrew B. Smith
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Sébastien Clausen: Université des Sciences et Technologies de Lille
Andrew B. Smith: Natural History Museum

Nature, 2005, vol. 438, issue 7066, 351-354

Abstract: Farewell to feeding arms The stylophorans are an extinct group of animals classified variously as early echinoderms or chordates. Their uncertain ancestry reflects the difficulty of working out their precise body plan and lifestyle. Newly discovered fossil fragments from the Middle Cambrian of Morocco go some way towards clarifying matters, in particular relating to a structure sometimes called a feeding arm. The new fossils favour an echinoderm-like body plan but the ‘feeding arm’, sometimes invoked as an echinoderm-like attribute, has no mouth; rather it seems to be a muscular appendage used in locomotion.

Date: 2005
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DOI: 10.1038/nature04109

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