Tontoia is a dubious genus of arthropod known from the Cambrian Burgess Shale, known from a fossil proposed to be the external mould of an arthropod exoskeleton. In its original description by Charles D. Walcott it was initially suggested that Tontoia might be a trilobite,[1] but it is currently considered to be a nomen dubium, and it is unclear whether it even represents an arthropod.[2][3]
Tontoia Temporal range:
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Fossil of T. kwaguntensis from Walcott Cambrian Geology and Paleontology II | |
Scientific classification | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Arthropoda |
Genus: | †Tontoia Walcott, 1912 |
Type species | |
Tontoia kwaguntensis Walcott, 1912
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References
edit- ^ Walcott, C. D. 1912. Middle Cambrian Branchiopoda, Malacostraca, Trilobita and Merostomata. Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections, 57: 145-228.
- ^ Whittington, Harry B. (1985). "Tegopelte gigas, a Second Soft-Bodied Trilobite from the Burgess Shale, Middle Cambrian, British Columbia". Journal of Paleontology. 59 (5): 1251–1274. ISSN 0022-3360. JSTOR 1305016.
- ^ Ramsköld, Lars; Jun-Yuan, Chen; Edgecombe, Gregory D.; Gui-Qing, Zhou (1996). "Preservational folds simulating tergite junctions in tegopeltid and naraoiid arthropods". Lethaia. 29 (1): 15–20. doi:10.1111/j.1502-3931.1996.tb01832.x. ISSN 0024-1164.