Journal
PROCEEDINGS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY B-BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES
Volume 286, Issue 1908, Pages -Publisher
ROYAL SOC
DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2019.1079
Keywords
palaeoecology; Cambrian explosion; infauna; Burgess Shale; arthropod; stem group
Categories
Funding
- Royal Ontario Museum
- Polk Milstein Family
- National Geographic Society [9475-14]
- Swedish Research Council
- National Science Foundation [NSF-EAR-1554897]
- Pomona College
- Dorothy Strelsin Foundation (ROM)
- National Science and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) Canada Graduate Scholarship through the University of Toronto (Department of Ecology and Evolution)
- NSERC [341944]
- Royal Ontario Museum Burgess Shale project [83]
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Radiodonts, a Glade of Cambro-Devonian stern group euarthropods, have classically been regarded as nektonic apex predators. However, many aspects of radiodont morphology and ecology have remained unclear because of the typically fragmentary nature of fossil material. Here, we describe a new hurdiid radiodont based on abundant and exceptionally well-preserved fossils from the Burgess Shale (Marble Canyon area, British Columbia, Canada). Cambroraster falcatus gen. et sp. nov. is characterized by an extra-large horseshoe-shaped head carapace, bearing conspicuous posterolateral spinous processes, and partially covering a short trunk with eight pairs of lateral flaps. Each of the pair of frontal appendages possess five mesially curving rake-like endites equipped with a series of anteriorly directed hooked spines, altogether surrounding the oral cone. This feeding apparatus suggests a micro to macrophagous sediment-sifting feeding ecology. Cambroraster illuminates the evolution of Hurdiidae and evinces E the exploitation of the diversifying infauna by these large and specialized nektobenthic carnivores in the aftermath of the Cambrian explosion.
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