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: Miaolingian
Fossil of T. kwaguntensis from Walcott Cambrian Geology and Paleontology II
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Genus: Tontoia
Walcott, 1912
Type species
Tontoia kwaguntensis
Walcott, 1912

References

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  1. ^ Walcott, C. D. 1912. Middle Cambrian Branchiopoda, Malacostraca, Trilobita and Merostomata. Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections, 57: 145-228.
  2. ^ 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.
  3. ^ 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.