Miskoia

<i>Louisella</i>

Louisella

Extinct genus of worms

Louisella is a genus of worm known from the Middle Cambrian Burgess Shale. It was originally described by Charles Walcott in 1911 as a holothurian echinoderm,[1] and represents a senior synonym of Miskoia, which was originally described as an annelid.[2] 48 specimens of Louisella are known from the Greater Phyllopod bed, where they comprise < 0.1% of the community.[3] It has been stated to have palaeoscolecid-like sclerites,[4] though this is not in fact the case.[5]

Quick Facts Scientific classification, Species ...

It's also been interpreted as an annelid [6] and a sipunculan,[7] (neither on particularly compelling grounds) and a pripaulid,[8] but it is more conservatively considered to represent an ecdysozoan worm;[5] deep ecdysozoan relationships are not yet well resolved, making a more precise affiliation challenging.

References

  1. [1]
    Durham, J. W. (1974). "Systematic Position of Eldonia ludwigi Walcott". Journal of Paleontology. 48 (4): 750–755. JSTOR 1303225.
  2. [2]
    Walcott, C. D. (1911). "Cambrian Geology and Paleontology II. Middle Cambrian annelids". Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections. 57 (5): 109–145 – via Wikisource.
  3. [3]
    Caron, Jean-Bernard; Jackson, Donald A. (October 2006). "Taphonomy of the Greater Phyllopod Bed community, Burgess Shale". PALAIOS. 21 (5): 451–65. Bibcode:2006Palai..21..451C. doi:10.2110/palo.2003.P05-070R. JSTOR 20173022. S2CID 53646959.
  4. [4]
    Conway Morris, S. (1997). "The cuticular structure of the 495-Myr-old type species of the fossil worm Palaeoscolex, P. piscatorum (?Priapulida)". Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society. 119: 69–82. doi:10.1111/j.1096-3642.1997.tb00136.x.
  5. [5]
    Smith, M.R. 2015: A palaeoscolecid worm from the Burgess Shale. Palaeontology 58, 973–979. doi:10.1111/pala.12210
  6. [6]
    Madsen, F.J. 1957: On Walcott’s Supposed Cambrian Holothurians. Journal of Paleontology 31, 281–282.
  7. [7]
    Howell, B.F. 1962: Worms. In Moore, R. C. (ed.), Treatise on Invertebrate Paleontology W (Miscellanea), W144–W177. Geological Society of America, New York.
  8. [8]
    Conway Morris, S. 1977: Fossil priapulid worms. Special Papers in Palaeontology 20, 1–95.


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