Description

Oesia disjuncta
Hemichordate
Middle Cambrian
Wheeler Shale
House Range, Millard County, Utah, USA

Colorful 58mm hemichordate on 79mm slab.

Soft-bodied.

Oesia is a genus of Middle Cambrian tube-like or worm-like animal first known from the Burgess Shale but recently discovered in the Wheeler Shale. It’s another oddball creature that was difficult to classify but it seems the prevailing opinion is leaning toward it being a hemichordate (something like a modern acorn worm).

See: Nanglu, Karma; Caron, Jean-Bernard; Conway Morris, Simon; Cameron, Christopher B. (2016). “Cambrian suspension-feeding tubicolous hemichordates”. BMC Biology. 14 (1)