Pywackia
| Pywackia Temporal range:
| |
|---|---|
| |
| Artist's restoration | |
Scientific classification 
| |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | incertae sedis |
| Genus: | †Pywackia |
| Species: | †P. baileyi
|
| Binomial name | |
| †Pywackia baileyi Landing in Landing et al., 2010
| |
Pywackia is a contentious Cambrian fossil that has been interpreted as the earliest (total group) Bryozoan, and the only representative of that phylum in the Cambrian period.[1] Its Bryozoan credentials have been called into question,[2] but the octocoral alternative is equally unconvincing, and there are reasons to suggest a position in the Stenolaemata stem lineage.[3]
References
- ^ Landing, E.; English, A.; Keppie, J. D. (2010). "Cambrian origin of all skeletalized metazoan phyla--Discovery of Earth's oldest bryozoans (Upper Cambrian, southern Mexico)". Geology. 38 (6): 547. doi:10.1130/G30870.1.
- ^ Taylor, P. D.; Berning, B. R.; Wilson, M. A. (2013). "Reinterpretation of the Cambrian 'Bryozoan' Pywackia as an Octocoral". Journal of Paleontology. 87 (6): 984. doi:10.1666/13-029.
- ^ "Distinguishing Earth's oldest known bryozoan (Pywackia, late Cambrian) from pennatulacean octocorals (Mesozoic—Recent)". Journal of Paleontology. 89 (2): 292–317. 2015. doi:10.1017/jpa.2014.26.
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