Zhiwenia
| Zhiwenia Temporal range:
| |
|---|---|
| Holotype specimen | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Arthropoda |
| Clade: | †Artiopoda |
| (unranked): | †Protosutura |
| Genus: | †Zhiwenia Du, Ortega-Hernández, Yang & Zhang, 2019 |
| Species: | †Z. coronata
|
| Binomial name | |
| †Zhiwenia coronata Du, Ortega-Hernández, Yang & Zhang, 2019
| |
Zhiwenia is a genus of artiopodans that existed during Stage 3 of the Cambrian period and was uncovered in the Xiaoshiba Lagerstätte in China. Only one species is known, Zhiwenia coronata. An early relative of trilobites, it has been posited as the sister taxon of Australimicola in the newly defined clade Protosutura, a proposed early-branching artiopodan clade.
Likely a benthic detritus feeder, Zhiwenia measured around 5 cm (2 in) in length, and had an unmineralized exoskeleton consisting of a headshield followed by a series of body segments. Facial sutures on the headshield have been proposed to be either convergently evolved with trilobites and other artiopodans, or symplesiomorphic to artiopodans as a whole.