''Luohuilinella'' is an extinct genus of
xandarellid artiopoda
The Artiopoda is a grouping of extinct arthropods that includes trilobites and their close relatives. It was erected by Hou and Bergström in 1997 to encompass a wide diversity of arthropods that would traditionally have been assigned to the Trilo ...
n
arthropod
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 Arth ...
known from the
Chengjiang biota
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 China. The type species ''Luohuilinella rarus'' was described in 2012. A second species ''Luohuilinella deletres'' was described in 2018.
Both taxa are rare components of the assemblage. Like other Xandarellids and most artiopodans, it possessed an unmineralised exoskeleton. The type and currently only known specimen of ''L. rarus'' is known from a dorsal exoskeleton, around 17 mm long and 9 mm wide which consists of 27 tergites with pronounced pleural spines. ''L. deletres'' is much larger, with specimens being over 10 cm long, ''L. deletres'' possessed at least 11 pairs of
biramous appendages. Both taxa are dorsoventrally flattened, making a benthic or nektobenthic lifestyle probable. Both taxa have pronounced notches in the
cephalon
Cephalon, Inc. was an American biopharmaceutical company co-founded in 1987 by pharmacologist Frank Baldino, Jr., neuroscientist Michael Lewis, and organic chemist James C. Kauer—all three former scientists with the DuPont Company. Baldino s ...
to accommodate the stalked eyes.
References
Artiopoda
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