Waptia

Waptia is an extinct genus of marine arthropod from the Middle Cambrian of North America. It grew to a length of 6.65 cm (3 in), and had a large bivalved carapace and a segmented body terminating into a pair of tail flaps. It was an active swimmer and likely a predator of soft-bodied prey. It is also one of the oldest animals with direct evidence of brood care. Waptia fieldensis is the only species classified under the genus Waptia, and is known from the Burgess Shale Lagerstätte of British Columbia, Canada. Specimens of Waptia are also known from the Spence Shale of Utah, United States.

Waptia

Jean Vannier, Cédric Aria, Rod S. Taylor and Jean-Bernard Caron · 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
WaptiidaePBDB
Diet
detritivorePBDB
Life habit
nektobenthicPBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB
Vision
well-developedPBDB

Time the record covers

At least 9.5 million years on record.

The record covers at least 516 Mya to 506.5 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 521 Mya to 497 Mya.

Cambrian — about 46 of 46 occurrencesCambrian522–521 Mya — about 1 occurrence521–520 Mya — about 3 occurrences520–519 Mya — about 3 occurrences519–518 Mya — about 3 occurrences518–517 Mya — about 3 occurrences517–517 Mya — about 3 occurrences517–516 Mya — about 2 occurrences516–515 Mya — about 2 occurrences515–514 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences514–513 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences513–512 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences512–512 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences512–511 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences511–510 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences510–509 Mya — about 4 occurrences509–508 Mya — about 5 occurrences508–507 Mya — about 5 occurrences507–507 Mya — about 5 occurrences507–506 Mya — about 5 occurrences506–505 Mya — about 2 occurrences505–504 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences504–503 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences503–502 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences502–502 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences502–501 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences501–500 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences500–499 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences499–498 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences498–497 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences497–497 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences516 Mya506.5 Mya521.5 Mya496.5 Mya

46 occurrences of Waptia 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

46 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

5 formations

Burgess Shale — 51.44°N, 116.47°WBurgess Shale — 51.39°N, 116.43°WYu'anshan — 25.33°N, 103.50°EYu'anshan — 25.55°N, 102.40°EYu'anshan — 24.77°N, 102.58°EYuanshan — 24.81°N, 102.58°EYuanshan — 24.84°N, 102.41°ELangston — 41.59°N, 112.03°WBalang — 26.39°N, 107.69°E

Loading coastlines…

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

Waptia and its relatives

Cambrian

Where Waptia and its relatives were recorded in the Cambrian.

Found in the same rock

377 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 41 sites for Waptia, 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

9 references

Each of the 46 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 content1

Picture of Waptia

Credit
Jean Vannier, Cédric Aria, Rod S. Taylor and Jean-Bernard Caron
Licence
CC BY 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Waptia 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 itWaptiidae through timeFormations of the CambrianThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Walcott 1912