Burgess Shale-type deposits provide invaluable insights into the early evolution of body plans and the ecological structure of Cambrian communities, but a number of species, continue to defy phylogenetic interpretations. Here we extend this list to include a new soft-bodied animal, Siphusauctum gregarium n. gen. and n. sp., from the Tulip Beds (Campsite Cliff Shale Member, Burgess Shale Formati...

N o paleontological subject comes close to stimulating the public's interest like dinosaurs, but the origin of animals is probably a solid second. As is well known, representatives of nearly all of the animal phyla (e.g., arthropods, molluscs, echino-derms) appear at roughly the same moment in geologic time, the beginning of the Cambrian period, about 550 million years ago. Their sudden appeara...