Zhugeia
| Zhugeia Temporal range:
| |
|---|---|
| Fossil of Zhugeia acuticaudata | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Arthropoda |
| Clade: | †Artiopoda |
| Order: | †Xandarellida |
| Genus: | †Zhugeia Zhu et al., 2023 |
| Species: | †Z. acuticaudata
|
| Binomial name | |
| †Zhugeia acuticaudata Zhu et al., 2023
| |
Zhugeia is an extinct genus of xandarellid arthropod from the middle Cambrian Stage 3. It was found in the Kuangshan section of the Yu''anshan Formation, near the Qujing city of Yunnan Province, China. The genus contains a single species, Zhugeia acuticaudata.[1]
Discovery and naming
The only known specimen of Zhugeia was found in the Yu'anshan Formation (Kuangshan section of the upper Maotianshan Member). The genus name is after the Zhuge Mountain, and the specific name is after the Latin acuti, meaning spinous, and caudata, meaning tail.[1]
Description
The body is 49 mm (1.9 in) long. The cephalon is semi-elliptical with a pair of genal spines. The eyes are ovoid. The body is made of nine segments that slightly overlap each other. The pygidium is situated within a notch made by the pleural spines of the last tergite. It is 16 mm (0.63 in) long with the pygidial spine.[1]
Affinities
Zhu et al. (2023) placed Zhugeia within the clade Xandarellida. This was later supported by Zhang et al. (2024). The strict consensus tree derived from the phylogenetic analyses of this study are shown in the cladogram below:[2]
| Xandarellida |
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References
- ^ a b c Zhu, Yuyan; Zeng, Han; Liu, Yao; Zhao, Fangchen (2023). "New artiopodan euarthropods from the Chengjiang fauna (Cambrian Stage 3) at Malong, Yunnan, China". Acta Palaeontologica Polonica. 68. doi:10.4202/app.01080.2023.
- ^ Zhang, Maoyin; Liu, Yu; Mai, Huijuan; Schmidt, Michel; Hou, Xianguang (2024-10-07). "Ventral Morphology and Ecological Implications of Cindarella eucalla (Artiopoda, Xandarellida) from Chengjiang Biota, China". eLife. doi:10.7554/eLife.100729.1. Retrieved 2026-02-24.