Ottoia prolifica Walcott, 1911
Priapulida
Ottoiidae
Middle Cambrian
Burgess Shale Fm
British Columbia, Canada
Length: 8 cm
This Cambrian worm from the Burgess Shale probably belong to the extent group known as priapulids. They were burrowers that probably spent most of its buried in the sand. One of its common preys was the hyolithid Haplophrentis as indicated by the fossilized gut contents. Some 1000 specimens have been collected from the Burgess Shale.
February 20, 2017
All illustrations on this site are copyrighted to Nobu Tamura. The low resolution versions of the images are licensed under Creative Commons Attribution- ShareAlike (CC BY-SA) license meaning that you are free to use them as long as you properly credit the author (© N. Tamura). High resolution versions are available upon request. Questions: contact me at nobu dot tamura at yahoo dot com.