Yohoia

Yohoia

• North America ( Burgess Shale, Canada)

• Yohoia tenius

Yohoia is an extinct species of animal from the early Cambrian. Fossils of his hitherto only known representative Yohoia tenius were discovered in the Burgess Shale in the eponymous Yoho National Park of the Canadian province of British Columbia in 1912 and described by the paleontologist Charles Walcott U.S. for the first time scientifically. Due to the over 700 found fossils of Yohoia tenius the genus is considered one of the more common representative of the biota of the Burgess Shale. Due to the anatomical features Yohoia is suspected as an early descendant of the arachnid and crustacean - line.

Features

Yohoia tenius had a length of 7 to 21 mm. Its hull of 12 segments and a head segment existing body was protected by an exoskeleton. The hull was completed by a paddle -shaped telson, which should serve the movement in the water. The hull segments contributed paddle-shaped limbs, which should also serve to locomotion. The head segment, however, was wearing three pairs of leg-like limbs, which probably gave grip on the sandy ocean floor. Striking the pair of so-called Great Appendages was ( " large attachments " ) on the head. This Great Appendages wore claws and were similar to those of Jianfengia, Alalcomenaeus and Leancholia. You probably served for catching prey.

System

The systematic classification of Yohoia is considered problematic and is therefore controversial. Based on the anatomy of the so-called Great Appendages provides Yohoia probably together with other representatives of the group of Megacheira an early descendant of the arachnid and crustacean - line dar.