Buccaspinea

Buccaspinea Temporal range: Drumian PreꞒ Ꞓ O S D C P T J K Pg N ↓
Fossil material of Buccaspinea
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Order:	†Radiodonta
Family:	†Hurdiidae
Genus:	†Buccaspinea Pates et al, 2021
Species:	†B. cooperi
Binomial name
†Buccaspinea cooperi Pates et al, 2021

Buccaspinea is an extinct genus of Cambrian hurdiid radiodont from the Marjum Formation, known from frontal appendages and a nearly complete albeit headless specimen with a preserved oral cone.^[1] Buccaspinea was described in January 2021, being the second-most recent hurdiid genus to be described.

Etymology

Buccaspinea means "thorn mouth", referring to the large hooked spines on its oral cone. The specific name, cooperi honours Jason Cooper, the discoverer of the specimen.^[1]

Description

Buccaspinea is roughly 10 centimetres long and has large, long-spined appendages seemingly used for capturing benthic prey, as they are not branched for sifting sediment or filter-feeding. Buccaspinea appears to be closely related to Hurdia and Peytoia, sharing many characters with them, for example a lack of inner teeth, weak posterior tapering and many flap-bearing segments. Unusually, it does not seem to have dorsal flaps, a trait unique to it and a few other hurdiids, such as Cambroraster.^[2]

References

1. Pates, Stephen; Lerosey-Aubril, Rudy; Daley, Allison C.; Kier, Carlo; Bonino, Enrico; Ortega-Hernández, Javier (19 January 2021). "The diverse radiodont fauna from the Marjum Formation of Utah, USA (Cambrian: Drumian)". Palaeontology and Evolutionary Science. 9: e10509. doi:10.7717/peerj.10509. PMC 7821760. PMID 33552709.
2. Moysiuk, Joe; Jean-Bernard, Caron (31 July 2019). "A new hurdiid radiodont from the Burgess Shale evinces the exploitation of Cambrian infaunal food sources". The Royal Society Publishing. 286 (1908). doi:10.1098/rspb.2019.1079. PMC 6710600. PMID 31362637.