Description

Burgessia bella

Cambrian

Burgess Shale, Stephens Formation

Field, British Columbia, BC, Canada.

20mm including tail, Burgess Shale arthropod on 90mm matrix.

Arthropod.

Burgessia is an extinct genus of soft-bodied arthropod of uncertain affinities.  There hasn’t been a consensus on assigning it to a particular family nor order nor class.  It is known only from the Middle Cambrian Burgess Shale.  It is remarkable among arthropods in that in life its telson apparently exhibited some degree of flexibility.