Description

Middle Cambrian

Coulouma Formation

Montagnes Noire, France

Excellent 2.2cm carpoid

Carpoid.

Trochocystites is a carpoid genus known from the Cambrian of Europe.  Carpoids are an extinct group that most paleontologists consider to be early echinoderms while others argue they could be primitive chordates.

This specimen comes from a time early in their history.  They died out during the Devonian Period (known from the Bundenbach locality in Germany).