Description

Vetulicola cuneatus Hou 1987
Lower Cambrian
Yu’ anshan Mbr., Qiongzhusi Formation
Chengjiang, China
Near-complete 45mm vetulicolan on 77mm slab.

Problematica. Vetulicolia. Soft-bodied. Lagerstatte.

Vetulicola is a genus of odd soft-bodied animal that doesn’t have clearly identifiable anatomical structures nor does it have a body plan that fits well with anything known so scientists put it into a phyllum named after it, Vetulocolia. It seems like it could be an oddball arthropod or an early chordate or something related to early chordates.

Vetulicolans are known only from Cambrian Lagerstätten so far.

If you’re a serious invertebrate fossil collector, you might want to pick up one of these weird soft-bodied animals for that time when they have become better-understood by science and more widely-known by collectors.