Nektognathus evasmithae

Nektognathus evasmithae is an extinct species of nectocaridid that lived about 520 million years ago, in the Cambrian. Its fossils are known from the Sirius Passet Lagerstätte in Peary Land, Greenland, and it was first described in 2025. Nektognathus shares features with both the formerly enigmatic Nectocaris and with the stem-chaetognath Timorebestia, suggesting they are closely related.

Nektognathus evasmithae

Jakob Vinther and Luke A. Parry · CC BY 4.0 · 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
NektognathusPBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Chaetognatha
Life habit
nektonicPBDB, for Chaetognatha
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Chaetognatha

Time the record covers

At most 6.5 million years on record.

The one occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 521 Mya and 514.5 Mya, which is a dating window rather than a span.

Cambrian — about 1 of 1 occurrenceCambrian521–521 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences521–521 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences521–520 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences520–520 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences520–520 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences520–520 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences520–519 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences519–519 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences519–519 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences519–519 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences519–518 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences518–518 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences518–518 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences518–518 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences518–517 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences517–517 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences517–517 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences517–517 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences517–516 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences516–516 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences516–516 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences516–516 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences516–515 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences515–515 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences515–515 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences515–515 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences521.5 Mya514 Mya

1 occurrence of Nektognathus evasmithae 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

1 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

1 formation

Buen — 82.79°N, 34.23°W

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

Nektognathus evasmithae and its relatives

Cambrian

Where Nektognathus evasmithae and its relatives were recorded in the Cambrian.

Found in the same rock

1 taxon

The Paleobiology Database records 1 site for Nektognathus evasmithae, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too.

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

1 reference

Each of the 1 occurrence 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 content1

Picture of Nektognathus evasmithae

Credit
Jakob Vinther and Luke A. Parry
Licence
CC BY 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Nektognathus evasmithae 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 itNektognathus through timeFormations of the CambrianThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Vinther et al. 2025