Scenella amii

Overview

Scenella amii is a small cone-shaped fossil raised in the center. Its oval outline and concentric rings around the apex reveal a shell that looks both familiar and unfamiliar.^[1]

Key facts

The genus name Scenella comes from a Greek word for a tent or shelter. The species name amii honors Ami of the Geological Survey of Canada. Its little tent-like appearance and a person’s name are combined.^[1]

Time and place

The Royal Ontario Museum introduces it as a Middle Cambrian organism from roughly 505 million years ago. It is known from the Walcott and Raymond quarries and Mount Stephen in the Burgess Shale area of present-day Canada.^[1]

The time range describes source context, not the complete duration of this species.

Size, form and skeleton

The low conical shell is elongated along one axis, making it nearly oval. Rings surround the central apex, and wave-like wrinkles are sometimes visible. Type specimen ROM8048 is introduced as 10 millimeters long.^[1]

Habitat and reproduction

The museum explains that, if interpreted as a mollusk, it may have crawled along the bottom scraping food from surfaces. This is a case in which interpretations of lifestyle change with the kind of animal it is considered to be.^[1]

Fossil discovery

Matthew described material collected from the trilobite beds of Mount Stephen in 1902 under the name Metoptoma amii. Subsequent comparisons with other material led to its treatment as Scenella amii in 1938.^[1]

References

1. Scenella amii
2. Royal Ontario Museum — Scenella amii
3. Waptia fieldensis

Research questions

Fossils of this shape have been compared with mollusks as well as other groups such as cnidarians. Which animal body should be associated with the preserved shell-like hard structure has long been a research question.^[1]

Observation

The illustration depicts a low, oval conical shell. Move your gaze from the central apex along the concentric rings to the outer margin.^[1]