A priapulid larva from the middle Cambrian (Wuliuan Stage) of North Greenland (Laurentia)

 

Authors: Peel JS

Published in: Bulletin of Geosciences, volume 97, issue 4; pages: 445 - 452; Received 15 July 2022; Accepted in revised form 3 September 2022; Online 9 October 2022

Keywords: total-group priapulid, larva, Cambrian, Miaolingian (Wuliuan), North Greenland, Laurentia,

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Abstract

A single phosphatised specimen from the middle Cambrian Henson Gletscher Formation (Miaolingian Series, Wuliuan Stage) of North Greenland is interpreted as the hatching larva of a total-group priapulid worm. A plated lorica is not present but probably was developed at a later larval stage, by comparison with the described development of extant Priapulus caudatus and Halicryptus spinulosus. A characteristic priapulid introvert with scalids is not seen but it was likely withdrawn in the available specimen. The new find is consistent with a similar ontogeny in Cambrian priapulid cycloneuralians to that seen in their present day relatives. New taxon: Inuitiphlaskus kouchinskyi gen. et sp. nov.

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