Lecythioscopa

{{Automatic taxobox

| taxon = Lecythioscopa

| fossil_range = {{fossil range|505}} Burgess Shale

| authority = Conway Morris, 1977{{Cite journal | author1 = Conway Morris, S | title = Fossil priapulid worms | journal = Special Papers in Palaeontology | volume = 20 | year = 1977 }}

| subdivision = {{species list

| L. simplex | (Walcott, 1931) Conway Morris 1977}}

| synonyms =

Canadia simplex Walcott 1931

}}

Lecythioscopa is a genus of probable archaeopriapulid known from two specimens from the Walcott Quarry from the Middle Cambrian Burgess Shale.

Morphology

The specimens of Lectythioscopa are both missing their posterior portions, leaving a head, comparable to the proboscis of other priapulids, and long trunk, which is curved in both specimens. The animal was probably a burrower due to its external radial symmetry.

History

The species was originally placed as Canadia simplex by Charles Walcott in a 1931 publication based on a single specimen.{{cite journal | author = Walcott, C.D. | year = 1931 | title = Addenda to descriptions of Burgess shale fossils | journal = Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections | volume = 85 | pages = 1–42 | doi=10.1086/623925}} Simon Conway Morris later identified what was previously considered a specimen of Canadia dubia as sharing similar features, placing them both under the name of Lecythioscopa simplex.{{cite journal | author = Walcott, C.D. | year = 1911 | title = Middle Cambrian Annelids | journal = Cambrian Geology and Paleontology | volume = 2 | pages = 109–142 }}

References

Category:Priapulida

†Lecythioscopa

Category:Prehistoric protostome genera

Category:Burgess Shale fossils

Category:Cambrian genus extinctions

it:Lecythioscopa simplex