''Vetulicola'' is an extinct

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus com ...

of marine animal from the

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 ...

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 ...

. It is the eponymous member of the enigmatic phylum

Vetulicolia VetulicoliaThe taxon name, Vetulocolia, is derived from the type genus, ''Vetulicola'', which is a compound Latin word composed of ''vetuli'' "old" and ''cola'' "inhabitant". is a taxon (either phylum or subphylum in rank) encompassing several ex ...

, which is of uncertain affinities but may belong to the

deuterostome Deuterostomia (; in Greek) are animals typically characterized by their anus forming before their mouth during embryonic development. The group's sister clade is Protostomia, animals whose digestive tract development is more varied. Some exampl ...

Description

The type species, ''Vetulicola cuneata'' (Hou, 1987) has a body composed of two distinct parts of approximately equal length. The anterior part is rectangular with a

carapace A carapace is a Dorsum (biology), dorsal (upper) section of the exoskeleton or shell in a number of animal groups, including arthropods, such as crustaceans and arachnids, as well as vertebrates, such as turtles and tortoises. In turtles and tor ...

-like structure of four rigid

cuticular A cuticle (), or cuticula, is any of a variety of tough but flexible, non-mineral outer coverings of an organism, or parts of an organism, that provide protection. Various types of "cuticle" are non- homologous, differing in their origin, structu ...

plates, with a large mouth at the front end. The posterior section is slender, strongly cuticularised and placed dorsally. Paired openings connecting the

pharynx The pharynx (plural: pharynges) is the part of the throat behind the mouth and nasal cavity, and above the oesophagus and trachea (the tubes going down to the stomach and the lungs). It is found in vertebrates and invertebrates, though its struc ...

to the outside run down the sides. These features are interpreted as possible primitive

gill slit Gill slits are individual openings to gills, i.e., multiple gill arches, which lack a single outer cover. Such gills are characteristic of cartilaginous fish such as sharks and rays, as well as deep-branching vertebrates such as lampreys. In con ...

s. ''Vetulicola cuneata'' could be up to 9 cm long. The ''Vetulicola'' are thought to have been swimmers that were either

filter feeder Filter feeders are a sub-group of suspension feeding animals that feed by straining suspended matter and food particles from water, typically by passing the water over a specialized filtering structure. Some animals that use this method of feedin ...

s or

detritivore Detritivores (also known as detrivores, detritophages, detritus feeders, or detritus eaters) are heterotrophs that obtain nutrients by consuming detritus (decomposing plant and animal parts as well as feces). There are many kinds of invertebrates, ...

s. Other ''Vetulicola'' species described are ''Vetulicola rectangulata'' (Luo & Hou, 1999), ''V. gantoucunensis'' (Luo et al., 2005), ''V. monile'' (Aldridge, Hou, Siveter, Siberet and Gabbott, 2007), and ''V. longbaoshanensis''. The mouth openings of all the other species are smaller, and do not protrude as in ''V. cuneata''. All other species, with the stark exception of ''V. gantoucunensis'', are smaller than the type species.

Taxonomy

''Vetulicolas

taxonomic Taxonomy is the practice and science of categorization or classification. A taxonomy (or taxonomical classification) is a scheme of classification, especially a hierarchical classification, in which things are organized into groups or types. ...

position is controversial. ''Vetulicola cuneata'' was originally assigned to the

crustacean Crustaceans (Crustacea, ) form a large, diverse arthropod taxon which includes such animals as decapods, seed shrimp, branchiopods, fish lice, krill, remipedes, isopods, barnacles, copepods, amphipods and mantis shrimp. The crustacean group ...

s on the assumption that it was a bivalved arthropod like ''

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 ...

'' and ''

Waptia ''Waptia fieldensis'' is an extinct species of arthropod from the Middle Cambrian Burgess Shale ''Lagerstätte'' of Canada. It grew to a length of , and had a large bivalved carapace and a segmented body terminating into a pair of tail flaps. I ...

'', but the lack of legs, the presence of gill slits, and the four plates in the "carapace" were unlike any known

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 ...

. Shu ''et al.'' placed ''Vetulicola'' in the new

family Family (from la, familia) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its ...

Vetulicolidae,

order Order, ORDER or Orders may refer to: * Categorization, the process in which ideas and objects are recognized, differentiated, and understood * Heterarchy, a system of organization wherein the elements have the potential to be ranked a number of d ...

Vetulicolida and

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 ...

, among the

s. Shu (2003) later argued that the vetulicolians were an early, specialized side-branch of deuterostomes. Dominguez and Jefferies classify ''Vetulicola'' as an urochordate, and probably a stem-group appendicularian. In contrast, Butterfield places ''Vetulicola'' among the arthropods. The discovery of the related Australian vetulicolian ''

Nesonektris ''Nesonektris aldridgei'' is an extinct deuterostome chordate from the Late Botomian-aged Emu Bay Shale Lagerstätte in Kangaroo Island, Australia. So far, it is the fourth described vetulicolian that is not restricted to the Maotianshan Shale ...

'', from the Lower Cambrian Emu Bay Shale of Kangaroo Island, and the reidentification of the "coiled gut" of vetulicolians as being a notochord affirms the identification as an urochordate.

Etymology

''Vetulicola'' is a compound Latin word composed of ''vetuli'', meaning "old," or "ancient," and ''cola'', meaning "inhabitant.""Vetulicolians - are they deuterostomes? chordates?"
/ref>

Paleobiology

''Vetulicola'' was the

host A host is a person responsible for guests at an event or for providing hospitality during it. Host may also refer to: Places * Host, Pennsylvania, a village in Berks County People *Jim Host (born 1937), American businessman * Michel Host ...

of the

symbiotic Symbiosis (from Greek , , "living together", from , , "together", and , bíōsis, "living") is any type of a close and long-term biological interaction between two different biological organisms, be it mutualistic, commensalistic, or parasit ...

organism '' Vermilituus gregarius'', which appears to have lived inside ''Vetulicolas anterior body. Only around 2% of ''Vetulicola'' individuals had ''Vermilituus'' infestations, but ''Vermilituus'' could be very numerous: one ''Vetulicola'' specimen had 88 individuals of ''Vermilituus'' infesting it. Such large numbers of symbiotic organisms were probably harmful to the host ''Vetulicola''.

References

*Butterfield, Nicholas J. 2003. Exceptional Fossil Preservation and the Cambrian Explosion. ''Integrative and Comparative Biology''. 43(1):166-177

- URL retrieved June 22, 2006 *Dominguez, Patricio and Jefferies, Richard. 2003. Fossil evidence on the origin of appendicularians. International Urochordate Meeting 2003. Abstract a

- URL retrieved June 22, 2006 *LUO, Huilin, FU, Xiaoping, HU, Shixue, LI, Yong, CHEN, Liangzhong, YOU, Ting and LIU, Qi. 2005. New Vetulicoliids from the Lower Cambrian Guanshan Fauna,

Kunming Kunming (; ), also known as Yunnan-Fu, is the capital and largest city of Yunnan province, China. It is the political, economic, communications and cultural centre of the province as well as the seat of the provincial government. The headquar ...

. Abstract a

- URL retrieved June 30, 2008 *Shu, D.-G., Conway Morris, S., Han, J., Chen, L., Zhang, X.-L., Zhang, Z.-F., Liu, H.-Q., Li, Y., and Liu, J.-N. 2001. Primitive Deuterostomes from the Chengjiang Lagerstätte (Lower Cambrian, China), ''Nature'', 414:419-424. (November 11, 2001). Abstract a

- URL retrieved June 30, 2008 *Shu, Degan. 2003. A paleontological perspective of vertebrate origin. ''Chinese Science Bulletin'', Vol. 48 No. 8 725-735. April, 2003. Abstract a

- URL retrieved June 30, 2008

External links

Biota of the Maotianshan Shale, Chengjiang China
- URL retrieved June 22, 2006 * Palaeos' Page on

br>Photos of ''Vetulicola cuneata'' fossils
- URL retrieved June 22, 2006

- Accessed January 3, 2008

- Accessed January 3, 2008 {{Taxonbar, from=Q7923847 Vetulicolia Maotianshan shales fossils Cambrian genus extinctions