Pirania is an extinct genus of sea sponge known from the Middle Cambrian Burgess Shale and the Ordovician Fezouata formation.[3] It is named after Mount St. Piran, a mountain situated in the Bow River Valley in Banff National Park, Alberta. It was first described in 1920 by Charles Doolittle Walcott.[4] 198 specimens of Pirania are known from the Greater Phyllopod bed, where they comprise 0.38% of the community.[5]

Pirania
Temporal range: Burgess Shale–Middle Ordovician [1]
Fossil specimen
Restoration model
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Porifera
Class: Demospongiae
Order: Protomonaxonida
Family: Piraniidae
Genus: Pirania
Walcott, 1920
Type species
Pirania muricata
Walcott, 1920
Species
  • Pirania auraenum Botting, 2007[1]
  • Pirania llanfawrensis Botting, 2004[2]
  • Pirania muricata Walcott, 1920

References edit

  1. ^ a b Botting, J. P. (2007). "'Cambrian' demosponges in the Ordovician of Morocco: insights into the early evolutionary history of sponges". Geobios. 40 (6): 737–748. Bibcode:2007Geobi..40..737B. doi:10.1016/j.geobios.2007.02.006.
  2. ^ Botting, J. P. (2004). "An exceptional Caradoc sponge fauna from the Llanfawr Quarries, Central Wales and phylogenetic implications". Journal of Systematic Palaeontology. 2 (1): 31–63. doi:10.1017/S147720190300110X. S2CID 83477858.
  3. ^ Van Roy, P.; Orr, P. J.; Botting, J. P.; Muir, L. A.; Vinther, J.; Lefebvre, B.; Hariri, K. E.; Briggs, D. E. G. (2010). "Ordovician faunas of Burgess Shale type". Nature. 465 (7295): 215–8. Bibcode:2010Natur.465..215V. doi:10.1038/nature09038. PMID 20463737. S2CID 4313285.
  4. ^ Walcott, C. D. (1920). "Cambrian geology and paleontology IV:6—Middle Cambrian Spongiae". Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections. 67: 261–364.
  5. ^ Caron, Jean-Bernard; Jackson, Donald A. (October 2006). "Taphonomy of the Greater Phyllopod Bed community, Burgess Shale". PALAIOS. 21 (5): 451–65. Bibcode:2006Palai..21..451C. doi:10.2110/palo.2003.P05-070R. JSTOR 20173022. S2CID 53646959.

External links edit