Waptia
Name: Waptia
(named after Mount Wapta).
Phonetic: Wap-te-ah.
Named By: Charles Doolittle Walcott - 1912.
Classification: Arthropoda, Crustaceomorpha,
Waptiida, Waptiidae.
Species: W. fieldensis
(type).
Diet: Detritivore.
Size: Body length roughly about 8 centimetres
long.
Known locations: Canada, British Columbia -
Burgess Shale. China - Yuanshan Formation. Possibly USA.
Time period: Mid Cambrian.
Fossil representation: Multiple individuals.
Waptia
was amongst some of the first fossil animals ever described by the
famous American palaeontologist Charles Doolittle Walcott, who today
is best remembered for his work upon Cambrian era animals, especially
those from the Burgess Shale Formation of Canada. Superficially,
Waptia loosely resembles modern shrimps, however
most researchers
agree that Waptia is not a true shrimp, and while
Waptia is usually
listed as a crustaceomorph, most don’t consider Waptia
to be a true
crustacean (which shrimps are).
Waptia
had a bivaled carapace that covered the cephalon (head) and the
thorax (upper body). Behind this a segmented abdomen trailed
behind and ended in a tail fan as well as a telson (a spike-like
projection that grows from the very end of the abdomen). The fan in
particular is interesting as this feature is also seen in shrimps where
it is used both as a stabiliser for swimming as well as quick means of
backwards propulsion through flicking to escape predators. This is
something that modern shrimps do, and so even if Waptia
was not
related to modern shrimps, it may well have developed similar
adaptations, either through convergent evolution or a shared common
ancestor.
Another
area where Waptia comes close to modern shrimps in
living ability is in
eyesight. The level of visual acuity is debatable, but most
researchers agree that Waptia would have been at
the very least capable
of distinguishing between light and dark, and hence movement of other
animals in its surroundings. Waptia may even have
been capable of
rudimentary sight in a similar manner to our own, though at the time
of writing this idea is not conclusively proven.
Waptia
is known to have had a hard outer shell, though the common distortion
of this shell caused by the pressures of fossilisation does indicate
that this shell would have been quite thin and still fairly pliable in
life. For the most part Waptia would have been a
bottom dwelling
detritivore, scouring the sea bed in the search of small morsels of
organic matter.
Further reading
- Addenda to descriptions of Burgess shale fossils. - Smithsonian
Miscellaneous Collections 85 (3): 1–46. - Charles
Doolittle Walcott - 1931.
- Taphonomy of the Greater Phyllopod Bed community, Burgess Shale.
- PALAIOS 21 (5): 451–65. - Jean-Bernard Caron
& Donald A. Jackson - 2006.
- Paleoecology of the Greater Phyllopod Bed community, Burgess
Shale. - Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology
258:222-256. - Jean-Bernard Caron & Donald A. Jackson
- 2008.
- Some observations on the sensory organization of the crustaceamorph
Waptia fieldensis Walcott. - Palaeontographica
Canadiana (31):
157–169. - Nicholas J. Strausfeld - 2011.
- Waptia and the diversification of brood care in early arthropods. -
Current Biology. 26 (1): 69–74. - Jean-Bernard Caron & Jean
Vannier - 2016.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Random favourites
 |
 |
 |
 |