Description

Middle Cambrian

Cutting on Christmas Hills Road, 11km west of Smithton,

Tasmania TAS, Australia

Unusual 27mm arthropod with presumed antennae on 74mm slab.

Arthropod,

Waptia is a genus of early arthropod, shrimp-like in appearance and at least related to primitive crustaceans.  For decades it was known only from the Middle Cambrian-age Burgess Shale but some fossils of roughly the same age in Utah might also be referred to this genus.

This specimen has been identified “cf. Waptia,” which means it compares favorably to the genus but the person who identified it could not be certain. It may be the first known example of this rare arthropod from the Southern Hemisphere.