🐚 InvertebratesPaleozoic before the PermianIconic
Opabinia
Opabinia regalis
Opabinia shows how experimental and varied body forms were during the Cambrian.
Image: Han Zeng · CC0 · Wikimedia Commons
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Sites on today's globe · 1 marker
Characteristics
- Scientific name
- Opabinia regalis
- Period
- Middle Cambrian
- Lived
- 508–505 Ma (508 million years ago)
- Diet
- Carnivore
- Habitat
- Open sea
- Length (estimate)
- 0.1 m
Description
Opabinia had five stalked eyes, a segmented body with side lobes and a distinctive flexible proboscis. A grasping organ at its tip probably picked up small animals or organic matter. It likely swam close to the seabed and was only a few centimetres long. Its unusual body plan makes its evolutionary relationships difficult to determine.
Habitat
The soft seabed and the water immediately above it.
Fossil sites
Burgess Shale, British Columbia
Burgess Shale Formation
Cultural profile: Canada →
Contemporaries in the database
Sources: Opabinia