''Marocella'' is a conical shelly fossil of uncertain affinity (probably a

mollusc Mollusca is the second-largest phylum of invertebrate animals after the Arthropoda, the members of which are known as molluscs or mollusks (). Around 85,000 extant species of molluscs are recognized. The number of fossil species is esti ...

) known from

Cambrian The Cambrian Period ( ; sometimes symbolized C with bar, 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 ...

strata of Europe, Morocco, Australia and Antarctica.

Morphology

Limpet-like ''Marocella '' is a low conical shell with concentric ridges that grew to a couple of centimetres in length.

Affinity

''Marocella'' is thought to be a mollusc, although its position within this

phylum In biology, a phylum (; plural: phyla) is a level of classification or taxonomic rank below kingdom and above class. Traditionally, in botany the term division has been used instead of phylum, although the International Code of Nomenclature f ...

is undetermined. Relationship to the

halkieriids The halkieriids are a group of fossil organisms from the Lower to Middle Cambrian. Their eponymous genus is ''Halkieria'' , which has been found on almost every continent in Lower to Mid Cambrian deposits, forming a large component of the smal ...

has also been considered.

Ecology

Some specimens show evidence of repairing damage caused by predators. It probably moved around on the sea floor. It was geographically widespread.

Distribution

Fossils of ''Marocella'' have been found in:''Marocella''
at

Fossilworks Fossilworks is a portal which provides query, download, and analysis tools to facilitate access to the Paleobiology Database The Paleobiology Database is an online resource for information on the distribution and classification of fossil animals ...

.org *

Shackleton Limestone The Shackleton Limestone is a Cambrian limestone formation of the Byrd Group of Antarctica. The age of the formation is established to be Cambrian Stage 3, dated at ranging from 520 to 516 Ma. This period correlates with the End-Botomian mass ext ...

, Antarctica * Mernmerna Formation and Parara Limestone, Australia *

Jbel Wawrmast Formation JBEL may refer to: * A variation on the name Jabal * ''Journal of Business, Entrepreneurship and the Law'' (JBEL), a publication of Pepperdine University School of Law See also * * Jabal (disambiguation) Jabal, Jabel, Jebel or Jibal may refer t ...

, Morocco * Sparagmite Formation, Norway * Láncara Formation, Spain

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q6772285 Cambrian animals Prehistoric mollusc genera Protostome enigmatic taxa Fossils of Antarctica Fossils of Australia Cambrian animals of Africa Fossils of Morocco Cambrian animals of Europe Cambrian Norway Fossils of Norway Fossils of Spain Fossil taxa described in 1986 Cambrian genus extinctions