Ercaicunia Explained

Ercaicunia is genus of bivalved Cambrian arthropod from the Chengjiang biota of Yunnan, China. It contains a single species, E. multinodosa that was described by Luo et al. in 1999.^[1] The total length of the body ranges from NaNmm. The bivalved carapace covered about a third of the total body-length, and has up to six serrations on its forward edge. The head has a pair of large uniramous antennae, as well as a smaller pair of secondary antennae, as well as pair of mandibles and maxillae. The trunk has 16 pairs of biramous appendages. Specimens were CT scanned in 2019, which suggested it to be a stem-group crustacean.^[2] Other subsequent studies have recovered it as a member of Hymenocarina, which contains other bivalved Cambrian arthropods.^{[3] [4]}

See also

• Arthropod
• Cambrian explosion
• Chengjiang biota
  • List of Chengjiang Biota species by phylum

Notes and References

1. Luo . HL . Hu . SX . Chen . LZ . Zhang . SS . Tao . YH . 1999 . Early Cambrian Chengjiang Fauna From Kunming Region, China. . Chinese . Kunming . Yunnan Science and Technology Press . 133363305.
2. Zhai. Dayou. Ortega-Hernández. Javier. Wolfe. Joanna M.. Hou. Xianguang. Cao. Chunjie. Liu. Yu. January 2019. Three-Dimensionally Preserved Appendages in an Early Cambrian Stem-Group Pancrustacean. Current Biology. en. 29. 1. 171–177.e1. 10.1016/j.cub.2018.11.060. 30595518. free. 2019CBio...29E.171Z .
3. -López . Alejandro Izquierdo . July 15, 2022 . Extreme multisegmentation in a giant bivalved arthropod from the Cambrian Burgess Shale . iScience. 25 . 7 . 104675 . 10.1016/j.isci.2022.104675 . 35845166 . 9283658 . 2022iSci...25j4675I .
4. Izquierdo-López . Alejandro . Caron . Jean-Bernard . November 2021 . Zhang . Xi-Guang . A Burgess Shale mandibulate arthropod with a pygidium: a case of convergent evolution . Papers in Palaeontology . en . 7 . 4 . 1877–1894 . 10.1002/spp2.1366 . 2021PPal....7.1877I . 236284813 . 2056-2799.