The Cambrian 'explosion'is widely regarded as one of the fulcrum points in the history of life,
yet its origins and causes remain deeply controversial. New data from the fossil record …

Three categories of fossil aggregates are recognized in the Lower Cambrian Maotianshan
Shale biota from SW China:(1) elliptical aggregates with randomly distributed exoskeletal …

Morphological phylogenetic analyses suggest that scalidophorans (priapulids, loriciferans,
and kinorhynchs) and nematoids (nematodes and nematomorphs) form the ecdysozoan …

Excluding the sponges the Kingdom Animalia is usually divided into three subkingdoms:
Diploblasta, Protostomia and Deuterostomia. The Cambrian Explosion consists of three …

Ecdysozoan worms (Nematoida+ Scalidophora) are typified by disparate grades of neural
organization reflecting a complex evolutionary history. The fossil record offers a unique …

The fate of the blastopore during development in the bilaterian ancestor is currently not well
understood. In deuterostomes, the blastopore forms the anus, but its fate in protostome …

Priapulids and their extinct relatives, the archaeopriapulids and palaeoscolecids, are
vermiform, carnivorous ecdysozoans with an armoured, extensible proboscis. These worms …

The final assembly of the supercontinent Gondwana during the Pan-African orogenic
episodes (ca. 550–520 Ma) almost simultaneously took place with the Cambrian explosion …

Halicryptus includes two priapulid species with highly different adult body sizes, small-sized
Halicryptus spinulosus von Siebold, 1849 and large-sized Halicryptus higginsi Shirley and …

Naraoiids, defined as lightly sclerotized arthropods with a dimidiate tergum of two sclerites
separated by a single transverse articulation, have been found in the Cambrian and Silurian …