Chengjiangocaris Explained

Chengjiangocaris is an extinct genus of fuxianhuiid arthropod known from the Cambrian of South China. It contains two species, C. longiformis which was described in 1991. C. kunmingensis was described in 2013 by Javier Ortega-Hernández and colleagues.^{[1] [2]} One specimen of C. kunmingensis shows detailed evidence of a nervous system.^[3] The nervous system of the chengjiangocaris is and has always been very complex to understand but a recent discovery of the ladder like ventral nerval cords and segmental ganglia of the related chengjiangocaris together with the brain provide the most comprehensive reconstruction of any lower Cambrian arthropod.

Anatomy

C. kunmingensis has 20 anterior trunk tergites and up to 16 narrow anterior tergites.^[4]

Phylogeny

After^[5]

Further reading

• Jie Yang et al., Fuxianhuiid ventral nerve cord and early nervous system evolution in Panarthropoda - abstract, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, subscription required for full article
• Javier Ortega-Hernández, Opinion: Our 500 million-year-old nervous system fossil shines a light on animal evolution, CC-BY 4.0
• Paleontologists Find 520 Million-Year-Old Fossilized Central Nervous System, Sci-News.com
• Chengjiang Maotianshan Shales Fossils, FossilMuseum.net

External links

• Photos at Nature.com

Notes and References

1. Web site: Figure 3: Reconstruction of Chengjiangocaris kunmingensis. Researchgate. 1 March 2016.
2. News: 520m-year-old nervous system among oldest and most detailed ever found. 1 March 2016. The Guardian. 1 March 2016.
3. News: Feltman. Rachel. Exquisitely detailed 520 million-year-old fossil shows individual nerves. 1 March 2016. Washington Post. March 1, 2016.
4. Yang. Jie. Ortega-Hernández. Javier. Butterfield. Nicholas J.. Zhang. Xi-guang. February 2013. Specialized appendages in fuxianhuiids and the head organization of early euarthropods. Nature. en. 494. 7438. 468–471. 10.1038/nature11874. 23446418 . 2013Natur.494..468Y . 4424201 . 0028-0836.
5. Liu. Yu. Ortega-Hernández. Javier. Chen. Hong. Mai. Huijuan. Zhai. Dayou. Hou. Xianguang. December 2020. Computed tomography sheds new light on the affinities of the enigmatic euarthropod Jianshania furcatus from the early Cambrian Chengjiang biota. BMC Evolutionary Biology. en. 20. 1. 62. 10.1186/s12862-020-01625-4. 1471-2148. 7268425. 32487135 . free .