🐚 InvertebratesPaleozoic before the PermianWell known
Hallucigenia
Hallucigenia sparsa
The fossil illustrates both anatomical diversity and the changing nature of palaeontological reconstruction.
Image: Han Zeng · CC0 · Wikimedia Commons
Loading map textures; the previous reconstruction stays visible...
Sites on today's globe · 1 marker
Characteristics
- Scientific name
- Hallucigenia sparsa
- Period
- Middle Cambrian
- Lived
- 508–505 Ma (508 million years ago)
- Diet
- Unknown
- Habitat
- Open sea
- Length (estimate)
- 0.03 m
Description
Hallucigenia was a small, worm-like animal with a row of stiff dorsal spines and soft paired legs. The original reconstruction placed it upside down; better fossils showed that the spines were on its back. The spines may have deterred predators, while the legs walked across the seabed. Its mouth and gut provide no clear evidence of its diet.
Habitat
The marine seabed during the Cambrian.
Fossil sites
Burgess Shale, British Columbia
Burgess Shale Formation
Cultural profile: Canada →
Contemporaries in the database
Sources: Hallucigenia