Tamisiocaris
Name:
Tamisiocaris
(sieve shrimp).
Phonetic: Tam-is-e-o-kar-iss.
Named By: A. C. Daley & J. S.
Peel - 2010.
Classification: Arthropoda, Dinocaridida,
Radiodonta, Anomalocarida.
Species: T. borealis (type).
Diet: Filter feeder.
Size: Reconstructed to be about 70 centimetres
long.
Known locations: Greenland - Buen Formation
Formation.
Time period: Early Cambrian.
Fossil representation: Fossils of at least two
individuals.
Tamisiocaris
was first described as a possible anomalocaridid
back in 2010, but
by 2014 the genus was not only being confirmed as an
anomalocaridid, but as a filter feeder. Anomalocaridids generally
have two curving appendages that depending upon the genus, are
usually situated in front of the head. The appendages on Tamisiocaris
had many more backward facing bristles that other genera and they were
very fine forming a comb-like structure. This ‘combs’ are thought
to have been swept through the water so that small aquatic organisms
from plankton to small invertebrates were caught in them. The
appendages would then curl back around and deliver the bristles to the
mouth where they would be sucked clean of the trapped organisms.
In
2015 a new anomalocaridid named Aegiroscassis
was named, and this
is also thought to have been a filter feeder, and one that reached
very large sizes.
Further reading
- A Possible Anomalocaridid from the Cambrian Sirius Passet
Lagerst�tte, North Greenland. - Journal of Paleontology
84(2):352-355. - A. C. Daley & J. S. Peel
- 2010.
- A suspension-feeding anomalocarid from the Early Cambrian. -
Nature 507:496-499. - J. Vinther, M. Stein, N. R.
Longrich & D. A. T. Harper - 2014.
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