Paucipodia

Paucipodia inermis
Temporal range:
Fossil of Paucipodia haikouensis
Diagrammatic reconstruction
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Clade: Panarthropoda
Phylum: Lobopodia
Class: Xenusia
Order: Archonychophora
Family: Paucipodiidae
Hou et al., 2004
Genus: Paucipodia
Chen, Zhou & Ramsköld, 1995
Species:
P. inermis
Binomial name
Paucipodia inermis
Chen, Zhou & Ramsköld, 1995

Paucipodia inermis is a lobopod known from the Lower Cambrian Chengjiang lagerstätte. Its gut is puzzling; in some places, it is preserved in three dimensions, infilled with sediment; whereas in others it may be flat. These cannot result from phosphatisation, which is usually responsible for three-dimensional gut preservation, for the phosphate content of the guts is under 1% – the contents comprise quartz and muscovite. Its fossils do not suggest it had any sclerites, especially when compared with the related Hallucigenia.