Spence Shale
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Spence Shale
The Spence Shale is the middle member of the Langston Formation in southeastern Idaho and northeastern Utah. It is exposed in the Bear River Range, the Wasatch Range and the Wellsville Mountains. It is known for its abundant Cambrian trilobites and the preservation of Burgess Shale-type fossils. The type locality is Spence Gulch in southeastern Idaho, near the town of Liberty. It was first described by Charles Doolittle Walcott in 1908. Stratigraphy The Spence Shale spans the '' Albertella'' and '' Glossopleura'' biozones. Fauna Generic list of the fauna of the Spence Shale:Hammersburg, S.R., Hasiotis, S.T., Robison, R.R. 2018. Ichnotaxonomy of the Cambrian Spence Shale Member of the Langston Formation, Wellsville Mountains, Northern Utah, USA. Paleontological Contributions, 20, 1–66. Arthropoda Soft-bodied *''Anomalocaris'' *''Canadaspis'' *'' Caryosyntrips'' *'' Dioxycaris'' *''Hurdia'' *''Isoxys'' *''Leanchoilia'' *'' Meristosoma'' *''Mollisonia'' *''Sidneyia'' * ...
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Hyolitha
Hyoliths are animals with small conical shells, known as fossils from the Palaeozoic era. They are at least considered as lophotrochozoan, and possibly being lophophorates, a group which includes the brachiopods, while others consider them as being basal lophotrochozoans, or even molluscs. Morphology The shell of a hyolith is typically one to four centimeters in length, triangular or elliptical in cross section. Some species have rings or stripes. It comprises two parts: the main conical shell (previously referred to as a ‘conch’) and a cap-like operculum. Some also had two curved supports known as ''helens'' They are calcareous – probably aragonitic All of these structures grew by marginal accretion. Shell microstructure The orthothecid shell has an internal layer with a microstructure of transverse bundles, and an external layer comprising longitudinal bundles. Helens Some hyoliths had helens, long structures that taper as they coil gently in a logarithmic spira ...
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Wasatch Range
The Wasatch Range ( ) or Wasatch Mountains is a mountain range in the western United States that runs about from the Utah-Idaho border south to central Utah. It is the western edge of the greater Rocky Mountains, and the eastern edge of the Great Basin region.''Hiking the Wasatch'', John Veranth, 1988, Salt Lake City, The northern extension of the Wasatch Range, the Bear River Mountains, extends just into Idaho, constituting all of the Wasatch Range in that state. In the language of the native Ute people, Wasatch means "mountain pass" or "low pass over high range." According to William Bright, the mountains were named for a Shoshoni leader who was named with the Shoshoni term ''wasattsi'', meaning "blue heron". In 1926, Cecil Alter quoted Henry Gannett from 1902, who said that the word meant "land of many waters," then posited, "the word is a common one among the Shoshones, and is given to a berry basket" carried by women. Overview Since the earliest days of European sett ...
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Isoxys
''Isoxys'' (meaning "equal surfaces") is a genus of extinct bivalved Cambrian arthropod; the various species of which are thought to have been freely swimming predators. It had a pair of large spherical eyes (which are the most commonly preserved feature of the soft-bodied anatomy), and two large frontal appendages used to grasp prey. Description Species of ''Isoxys'' have roughly semicircular bivalved carapaces, which vary in morphology between species. The front and rear edges of the carapaces bear foward and posterior facing spines, respectively which in some species are greatly elongated''.'' The carapaces of ''Isoxys'' are typically in length, excluding the spines, though some species are known to reach over . In long-spined species when including spine length, some specimens exceed . The opening angle of the carapace was close to vertical, giving it a narrow profile when viewed from above.'''' The head had a pair of large spherical stalked eyes, as well as a pair of upwa ...
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Hurdia
''Hurdia'' is an extinct genus of hurdiid radiodont that lived 505 million years ago during the Cambrian Period. As a radiodont like ''Peytoia'' and ''Anomalocaris'', it is part of the ancestral lineage that led to euarthropods. Description ''Hurdia'' was one of the largest organisms in the Cambrian oceans, ''H. victoria'' reached approximately in length, while ''H. triangulata'' reached up to just . Its head bore a pair of rake-like frontal appendages which shovelled food into its pineapple-ring-like mouth (oral cone). Like other hurdiids, ''Hurdia'' bore a large frontal carapace protruding from its head composed of three sclerites: a central component known as the H-element and two lateral components known as P-elements. The function of this organ remains mysterious; it cannot have been protective as there was no underlying soft tissue. Originally, it is estimated that body flaps ran along the sides of the organisms, from which large gills were suspended. However, anatomy of ...
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Caryosyntrips
''Caryosyntrips'' ("nutcracker") is an extinct genus of radiodont which known from Canada, United States and Spain during the middle Cambrian. ''Caryosyntrips'' is known only from its 14-segmented frontal appendages, which resemble nutcrackers, recovered from the Burgess Shale Formation, Canada Wheeler Shale and Marjum Formation, United States, and Valdemiedes Formation, Spain. It was first named by Allison C. Daley, Graham E. Budd in 2010 and the type species is ''Caryosyntrips serratus''. ''Caryosyntrips'' is thought to have used their appendages in a scissor-like grasping or slicing motion, and were probably durophagous Durophagy is the eating behavior of animals that consume hard-shelled or exoskeleton bearing organisms, such as corals, shelled mollusks, or crabs. It is mostly used to describe fish, but is also used when describing reptiles, including fossil tu ..., feeding on hard-shelled organisms. Due to the unusual morphology of the frontal appendages and the limited ex ...
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Canadaspis
''Canadaspis'' ("Shield of Canada") is an extinct genus of bivalved Cambrian arthropod, known from North America and China. They are thought to have been benthic feeders that moved mainly by walking and possibly used its biramous appendages to stir mud in search of food. They have been placed within the Hymenocarina, which includes other bivalved Cambrian arthropods. Description ''Canadaspis'' ''perfecta'' The bivalved carapaces of ''Canadaspis'' ''perfecta'' are typically in length, which taper towards the front end. The head had a small pair of eyes borne on short stalks. Between the eyes is a forward pointing spine, as well as a pair of short antennae, which appear to lack segmentation. Similar antennae are known from '' Waptia'', and are probably homologous to the hemi-ellipsoid bodies of crustaceans, and thus likely have an olfactory function. The head also has another pair of larger, segmented antennae, probably with more than 12 segments, the segments increased in ...
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Anomalocaris
''Anomalocaris'' ("unlike other shrimp", or "abnormal shrimp") is an extinct genus of Radiodonta, radiodont, an Order (biology), order of early-diverging stem-group arthropods. The first fossils of ''Anomalocaris'' were discovered in the ''Ogygopsis'' Shale of the Stephen Formation in British Columbia, Canada by Joseph Frederick Whiteaves, with more examples found by Charles Doolittle Walcott in the Burgess Shale unit of the Stephen Formation. Other closely related fossils have been found in the older Emu Bay Shale of Australia, as well as possibly elsewhere. Originally several fossilized parts discovered separately (the mouth, frontal appendages and trunk) were thought to be three separate creatures, a misapprehension corrected by Harry B. Whittington and Derek Briggs in a 1985 journal article. With a body length close to 40 centimetres, ''A. canadensis'' is thought to be one of the earliest examples of an apex predator, though others have been found in older Cambrian lagerstätte ...
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Arthropoda
Arthropods (, (gen. ποδός)) are invertebrate animals with an exoskeleton, a Segmentation (biology), segmented body, and paired jointed appendages. Arthropods form the phylum Arthropoda. They are distinguished by their jointed limbs and Arthropod cuticle, cuticle made of chitin, often Mineralization (biology), mineralised with calcium carbonate. The arthropod body plan consists of segments, each with a pair of appendages. Arthropods are bilaterally symmetrical and their body possesses an exoskeleton, external skeleton. In order to keep growing, they must go through stages of moulting, a process by which they shed their exoskeleton to reveal a new one. Some species have wings. They are an extremely diverse group, with up to 10 million species. The haemocoel, an arthropod's internal cavity, through which its haemolymph – analogue of blood – circulates, accommodates its interior Organ (anatomy), organs; it has an open circulatory system. Like their exteriors, the internal or ...
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