''Innovatiocaris'' (meaning "innovation crab") is a genus of

radiodont Radiodonta is an extinct Order (biology), order of stem-group arthropods that was successful worldwide during the Cambrian period. They may be referred to as radiodonts, radiodontans, radiodontids, anomalocarids, or anomalocaridids, although the ...

of uncertain family from the

early Cambrian The Cambrian Period ( ; sometimes symbolized Ꞓ) was the first geological period of the Paleozoic Era, and of the Phanerozoic Eon. The Cambrian lasted 53.4 million years from the end of the preceding Ediacaran Period 538.8 million years ago ( ...

Chengjiang Lagerstätte The Maotianshan Shales are a series of Early Cambrian deposits in the Chiungchussu Formation, famous for their '' Konservat Lagerstätten'', deposits known for the exceptional preservation of fossilized organisms or traces. The Maotianshan Shales ...

Yunnan Province Yunnan , () is a landlocked province in the southwest of the People's Republic of China. The province spans approximately and has a population of 48.3 million (as of 2018). The capital of the province is Kunming. The province borders the C ...

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

. The genus contains two named species, ''I. maotianshanensis'', known from a nearly complete individual and isolated frontal appendages, and ''I.''? ''multispiniformis'', known from a complete frontal appendage.

Discovery and naming

20210531 Radiodonta frontal appendage Innovatiocaris maotianshanensis

The

holotype A holotype is a single physical example (or illustration) of an organism, known to have been used when the species (or lower-ranked taxon) was formally described. It is either the single such physical example (or illustration) or one of several ...

specimen of ''Innovatiocaris maotianshanensis'', ELRC 20001 was long considered in scientific literature as "''

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 ''Ogygop ...

'' sp". or ''Anomalocaris saron'' (=''

Houcaris ''Houcaris'' is a genus of tamisiocarididid radiodonts known from Cambrian Series 2 of China and the United States. It contains two species, ''Houcaris saron'' and ''Houcaris magnabasis'', both of which were originally named as species of the rel ...

saron''). However, in 2022, Zeng ''et al''. described it as a new genus and species of radiodont. The holotype consists of the nearly complete remains of a young individual, preserved on a part and counterpart. A brief description of the specimen was provided in Chen ''et al''. (1994), but, despite its popularity in popular science literature, it did not receiv a detailed description until 2022. ELRC 20011 and 20012, additional specimens collected in 1990, consist of isolated frontal appendages. These were designated as

paratypes In zoology and botany, a paratype is a specimen of an organism that helps define what the scientific name of a species and other taxon actually represents, but it is not the holotype (and in botany is also neither an isotype nor a syntype). Of ...

. The specimens were collected from the

Maotianshan Shale The Maotianshan Shales are a series of Early Cambrian deposits in the Chiungchussu Formation, famous for their '' Konservat Lagerstätten'', deposits known for the exceptional preservation of fossilized organisms or traces. The Maotianshan Shales ...

of the Yu'anshan Formation of Maotianshan,

Chengjiang Chengjiang (; earlier Tchinkiang) is a city located in Yuxi, Yunnan Province, China, just north of Fuxian Lake. Administrative divisions Chengjiang City has 2 subdistricts and 4 townships. ;2 subdistricts * Fenglu () * Longjie () ;4 towns C ...

, China. The generic name, "''Innovatiocaris''", is derived from the

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

words "innovatio", meaning "innovation" (honoring the 'innovative spirits" of Junyuan Chen, a scientist who contributed to research of the

) and "caris", meaning "crab". The specific name, "''maotianshanensis''", is derived from " Maotianshan", the location where the holotype was discovered. 20220916 Innovatiocaris multispiniformis

20220916 Innovatiocaris multispiniformis

NIGP 177621, the holotype of ''Innovatiocaris.''? ''multispiniformis'', was collected from the same locality as the ''I. maotianshanensis'' holotype. It consists of a complete frontal appendage. The appendage of ''I.''? ''multispiniformis'' consists of 13 distal articulated

podomere The arthropod leg is a form of jointed appendage of arthropods, usually used for walking. Many of the terms used for arthropod leg segments (called podomeres) are of Latin origin, and may be confused with terms for bones: ''coxa'' (meaning hip, pl ...

s, as opposed to the 11 podomeres found in ''I. maotianshanensis'' and ''I.''? sp. This may be a unique feature or the result of incomplete preservation. The specific name, "''multispiniformis''", is derived from the roots "multi", meaning "multiple", and "spiniformis", meaning "spinous", in reference to the multiple spines on the frontal appendages. An additional specimen, NIGP 177620, was assigned to ''Innovatiocaris''? sp. by Zeng ''et al''. (2022). It consists of a complete frontal appendage, preserved on a part and counterpart. The specimen was collected from the Maotianshan Shale Member of the Yu'anshan Formation in Jianshan,

Haikou Haikou (; ), also spelled as Hoikow is the capital and most populous city of the Chinese province of Hainan. Haikou city is situated on the northern coast of Hainan, by the mouth of the Nandu River. The northern part of the city is on the Ha ...

, Yunnan Province, China. It likely represents a distinct species from ''I. maotianshanensis''. 20220915 Innovatiocaris size

Classification

''Innovatiocaris'' was likely closely related to '' Anomalocaris kunmingensis'' and ''

Laminacaris ''Laminacaris'' is a genus of extinct stem-group arthropods (Radiodonta) that lived during the Cambrian period. It is monotypic with a single species ''Laminacaris chimera'', the fossil of which was described from the Chengjian biota of China in ...

''. Some of its features seem to indicate an affinity with the

Hurdiidae Hurdiidae is an extinct cosmopolitan distribution, cosmopolitan Family (biology), family of radiodonts, a group of Crown group#Stem groups, stem-group arthropods, which lived during the Paleozoic Era. It is the most long-lived radiodont clade, la ...

, though it is more similar to non-hurdiids than to members of the Hurdiidae. The results of two different

phylogenetic analyses In biology, phylogenetics (; from Greek φυλή/ φῦλον [] "tribe, clan, race", and wikt:γενετικός, γενετικός [] "origin, source, birth") is the study of the evolutionary history and relationships among or within groups o ...

by Zeng ''et al''. (2022) are displayed in the cladograms below: Topology 1: Strict consensus tree Topology 2: 50% majority-rule consensus tree

References

{{Taxonbar, from1=Q114000246, from2=Q114000398 Fossil taxa described in 2022 Cambrian arthropods Cambrian China Maotianshan shales fossils