Fuxianhuia

Fuxianhuia is a genus of Lower Cambrian fossil arthropod known from the Chengjiang fauna in China. Its purportedly primitive features have led to it playing a pivotal role in discussions about the euarthropod stem group. Nevertheless, despite being known from many specimens, disputes about its morphology, in particular its head appendages, have made it one of the most controversial of the Chengjiang taxa, and it has been discussed extensively in the context of the arthropod head problem.

Fuxianhuia

xiquinhosilva · CC BY 2.0 · via Wikipedia/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
FuxianhuiidaePBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB
Life habit
epifaunalPBDB
Motility
passively mobilePBDB
Vision
well-developedPBDB

Time the record covers

At most 33 million years on record.

Every occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 538.8 Mya and 506.5 Mya, and nothing in the dating separates them, so that window is what the record shows rather than a span.

Cambrian — about 21 of 21 occurrencesCambrian539–538 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences538–537 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences537–536 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences536–535 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences535–534 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences534–533 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences533–532 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences532–530 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences530–529 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences529–528 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences528–527 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences527–526 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences526–525 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences525–524 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences524–523 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences523–522 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences522–520 Mya — about 2 occurrences520–519 Mya — about 4 occurrences519–518 Mya — about 4 occurrences518–517 Mya — about 4 occurrences517–516 Mya — about 4 occurrences516–515 Mya — about 1 occurrence515–514 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences514–513 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences513–511 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences511–510 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences510–509 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences509–508 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences508–507 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences507–506 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences539.4 Mya505.9 Mya

21 occurrences of Fuxianhuia 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

21 occurrences

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

4 formations

Yuanshan — 24.81°N, 102.58°EYuanshan — 24.84°N, 102.41°EYuanshan — 24.67°N, 102.65°EYuanshan — 24.00°N, 102.00°EYu'anshan — 24.77°N, 102.58°EQiongzhusi — 24.65°N, 102.97°EQiongzhusi — 24.68°N, 102.98°EHongjingshao — 24.83°N, 102.83°EHongjingshao — 25.10°N, 102.80°E

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The named rock units Fuxianhuia has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed.

Fuxianhuia and its relatives

Cambrian

Where Fuxianhuia and its relatives were recorded in the Cambrian.

Found in the same rock

256 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 19 sites for Fuxianhuia, 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

10 references

Each of the 21 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. Entries link to doi.org where the Paleobiology Database holds an identifier, and to its own record where it does not. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content1

Picture of Fuxianhuia

Credit
xiquinhosilva
Licence
CC BY 2.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Fuxianhuia was found in MorphoSource and Sketchfab.

Smithsonian Open Access was not reached for this taxon, so this list is what the others held rather than everything there is.

The description on this site

Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0

This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.

Keep going

What may have been alongside itFuxianhuiidae through timeFormations of the CambrianThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Hou 1987