Anomalocaris canadensis

James St. John · CC BY 2.0 · via Wikidata/Commons. May be a photograph of a specimen, or an artist’s reconstruction — an interpretation of a skeleton, since colour and soft tissue are almost never preserved.
On record
Recorded, not inferred- Sits inside
- AnomalocarisPBDB
- Diet
- carnivorePBDB, for Anomalocaris
- Life habit
- nektonicPBDB, for Anomalocaris
- Motility
- actively mobilePBDB, for Anomalocaris
Time the record covers
At least 800 thousand years on record.
The record covers at least 505.3 Mya to 504.5 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 509.7 Mya to 497 Mya.
6 occurrences of Anomalocaris canadensis on record, most of them in the Cambrian. Bar height is expected occurrences, not a count: each fossil is spread across the span it is dated to, so a tall narrow bar means tight dating and a low wide one means loose.
When
6 occurrences- Cambrian100%
These are dates about fossils, not the animal: the record can only begin after it arose and end before it died out, so either end may reach further. Shares are expected occurrences: a fossil dated to a span is counted partly in each period it straddles. More on what this infers.
Found in
2 formations
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The named rock units Anomalocaris canadensis has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed.
Anomalocaris canadensis and its relatives
CambrianWhere Anomalocaris canadensis and its relatives were recorded in the Cambrian.
Found in the same rock
101 taxa- Hazelia2 sites
- Pirania2 sites
- Selkirkia2 sites
- Acmarhachis typicalis1 site
- Acrothyra1 site
- Aglaspis1 site
- Ammagnostus laiwuensis1 site
- Anabarochilina1 site
- Anabarochilina australis1 site
- Arapahoia1 site
- Arthropoda1 site
- Bathyuriscus1 site
- Beckwithia typa1 site
- Bradoriida1 site
- Burlingia hectori1 site
- Byronia1 site
- Cambrorhytium fragilis1 site
- Cambrorhytium major1 site
- Canadaspis1 site
- Canthylotreta1 site
- Caryosyntrips serratus1 site
- Cedaria minor1 site
- Cedarina1 site
- Choia carteri1 site
The Paleobiology Database records 3 sites for Anomalocaris canadensis, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too. The 24 sharing the most are listed.
This is not a list of everything alive at the time. It is only what has come out of the same ground as this animal and been written down.
Entered from
3 references- New anomalocaridid appendages from the Burgess Shale, Canada4
- The diverse radiodont fauna from the Marjum Formation of Utah, USA (Cambrian: Drumian)1
- The Burgess Shale and associated Cambrian formations west of the Fossil Gully Fault Zone on Mount Stephen, British Columbia1
Each of the 6 occurrences read was entered from one of these publications, ordered by how many each accounts for. This is not a search for papers mentioning the name. Each entry links to doi.org. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.
Media and terms
Media content2

Picture of Anomalocaris canadensis
- Source
- Wikidata/Commons
- Credit
- James St. John
- Licence
- CC BY 2.0
- Commercial use
- the licence allows it
3D model
- Source
- Sketchfab
- Credit
- UIPaleoRepository
- Licence
- CC Attribution
- Commercial use
- cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
Smithsonian Open Access and MorphoSource were not reached for this taxon, so this list is what the others held rather than everything there is.
This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.
Keep going
What may have been alongside itAnomalocaris through timeFormations of the CambrianThe world it lived on
Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Whiteaves 1892