''Tegopelte gigas'' (from the Greek tegos, “tile,” and pelte, “leather-shield,” referring to the shape of the dorsal body covering; gigas – from the Greek gigas, “giant,” due to the huge size of the animalTegopelte gigas. A giant trilobite-like arthropod
The Burgess Shale.) is a species of large (1 complete specimen was 27 cm) soft-bodied

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 two specimens from the

Burgess Shale The Burgess Shale is a fossil-bearing deposit exposed in the Canadian Rockies of British Columbia, Canada. It is famous for the exceptional preservation of the soft parts of its fossils. At old (middle Cambrian), it is one of the earliest foss ...

Trackway Historic roads (historic trails in USA and Canada) are paths or routes that have historical importance due to their use over a period of time. Examples exist from prehistoric times until the early 20th century. They include ancient trackway ...

s that may have been produced by this organism or a close relative are known from the Kicking Horse Shale, stratigraphically below its

body fossil A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserved ...

occurrences. ''T. gigas'' is the only species classified under the genus ''Tegopelte''. It is usually classified under its own family Tegopeltidae, but is sometimes placed under the family

Naraoiidae Naraoiidae is a family, of extinct, soft-shelled trilobite-like arthropods, that belongs to the order Nectaspida. Species included in the Naraoiidae are known from the second half of the Lower Cambrian to the end of the Upper Silurian. The tota ...

. It is currently considered a member of Conciliterga within the

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 ...

References

External links

* Burgess Shale fossils Cambrian arthropods Artiopoda {{paleo-arthropod-stub Cambrian genus extinctions