Journal
NATIONAL SCIENCE REVIEW
Volume 5, Issue 6, Pages 863-869Publisher
OXFORD UNIV PRESS
DOI: 10.1093/nsr/nwy057
Keywords
Lyrarapax; Radiodonta; Arthropoda; Cambrian; predation; feeding ecology
Categories
Funding
- Project 973 of the Ministry of Science and Technology of China [2013837100]
- Strategic Priority Research Program of Chinese Academy of Sciences [XDB26010104]
- National Natural Science Foundation of China [41222014, 41172023, 41621003, 41102012]
- 111 Project
- Ministry of Education of China for Chengjiang Scholars
- Australian Research Council Future Fellowship [FT120100770]
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The rapid rise of arthropods during the Cambrian quickly established some clades, such as the euarthropod stem-group called Radiodonta, as the dominant and most diverse predators in marine ecosystems. Recent discoveries have shown that the size and dietary ecology of radiodontans are far more diverse than previously thought, but little is known about the feeding habits of juveniles. Here, we document a very small (similar to 18-mm-long), near-complete specimen of the radiodontan Lyrarapax unguispinus from the early Cambrian Chengjiang Biota of China. This specimen is the smallest radiodontan individual known, representing a juvenile instar. Its adult-like morphology-especially the fully developed spinose frontal appendages and tetraradial oral cone-indicates that L. unguispinus was a well-equipped predator at an early developmental stage, similar to modern raptorial euarthropods, such as mantises, mantis shrimps and arachnids. This evidence, coupled with the basal phylogenetic position of radiodontans, confirms that raptorial feeding habits in juvenile euarthropods appeared early in the evolutionary history of the group.
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