Name: Occacaris.
Phonetic: Oc-ca-cah-ris.
Named By: Hou - 1999.
Classification: Arthropoda, Megacheira,
Pectocaridida, Occacarididae.
Species: O. oviformis (type).
Diet: Carnivore/Detritivore?
Size: Roughly about 15 millimetres long.
Carapace about 8 millimetres long, 6 millimetres high.
Known locations: China - Maotianshan shale.
Time period: Cambrian.
Fossil representation: Preserved flat on slab.
Occacaris
is
a genus of bivalved arthropod that lived in the seas of what is now
China during the Cambrian. Occacaris is known as a
bivalved arthropod
because of the main shell that was formed out of two pieces that hung
across the main body. Two appendages with upward facing spines
projected from the front. These may have been used to seize either
small creatures or morsels of organic matter, either from the water
or sifted through the sediment.
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