Buccaspinea is an extinct genus of Cambrian hurdiid radiodont from the Marjum Formation, known from frontal appendages and a nearly complete albeit headless specimen with a preserved oral cone.[1] Buccaspinea was described in January 2021, being the second-most recent hurdiid genus to be described.
| Buccaspinea Temporal range:
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| Fossil material of Buccaspinea | |
Scientific classification 
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| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Arthropoda |
| Order: | †Radiodonta |
| Family: | †Hurdiidae |
| Genus: | †Buccaspinea Pates et al, 2021 |
| Species: | †B. cooperi
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| Binomial name | |
| †Buccaspinea cooperi Pates et al, 2021
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Etymology
editBuccaspinea means "thorn mouth", referring to the large hooked spines on its oral cone. The specific name, cooperi honours Jason Cooper, the discoverer of the specimen.[1]
Description
editBuccaspinea is roughly 10 centimetres long and has large, long-spined appendages seemingly used for capturing benthic prey, as they are not branched for sifting sediment or filter-feeding. Buccaspinea appears to be closely related to Hurdia and Peytoia, sharing many characters with them, for example a lack of inner teeth, weak posterior tapering and many flap-bearing segments. Unusually, it does not seem to have dorsal flaps, a trait unique to it and a few other hurdiids, such as Cambroraster.[2]
References
edit- ^ a b Pates, Stephen; Lerosey-Aubril, Rudy; Daley, Allison C.; Kier, Carlo; Bonino, Enrico; Ortega-Hernández, Javier (19 January 2021). "The diverse radiodont fauna from the Marjum Formation of Utah, USA (Cambrian: Drumian)". Palaeontology and Evolutionary Science. 9: e10509. doi:10.7717/peerj.10509. PMC 7821760. PMID 33552709.
- ^ Moysiuk, Joe; Jean-Bernard, Caron (31 July 2019). "A new hurdiid radiodont from the Burgess Shale evinces the exploitation of Cambrian infaunal food sources". The Royal Society Publishing. 286 (1908). doi:10.1098/rspb.2019.1079. PMC 6710600. PMID 31362637.