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A New Ichnogenus Kailidiscus Produced by Attachment from the Middle Cambrian Kaili Formation in Taijiang, Guizhou Province, China
Author(s) -
Yue WANG
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
acta geologica sinica ‐ english edition
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.444
H-Index - 61
eISSN - 1755-6724
pISSN - 1000-9515
DOI - 10.1111/j.1755-6724.2006.tb00791.x
Subject(s) - biota , geology , paleontology , lagerstätte , seafloor spreading , ecology , biology
Over 190 specimens of an attachment ichnofossil Kailidiscus (n. ichnogen.) have been found in the Kaili Bitoa, a Burgess Shale‐type biota, from the middle Kaili Formation (early Middle Cambrian) in Taijiang County, Guizhou Province, southern China. Kailidiscus is an epichnia with a circular to oval attachment platform, on which there is a carbonaceous film probably formed by the body of the living organism. Structures such as a marginal furrow, an inner and outer marginal ride, many convex fold‐ridges, and a large caved peripheral furrow on the attachment platform may be the result of basal tissues of a sessile organism that wrinkled to increase the attachment's surface area. The Kailidiscus organism may have been a sessile cnidarian attached to the muddy seafloor. Kailidiscus organisms lived in relatively quiet water, and were buried by a sudden influx of sediment.