Organism · Arthropods
Waptia fieldensis
Source time context (not species duration) · ≈ 539–487 Ma
Inferred life reconstruction
Waptia fieldensis
Overview
Waptia fieldensis is a Cambrian arthropod with a carapace, eyes, antennae and varied appendages. Its front appendages, rear swimming appendages, posterior segments and tail differ in appearance. Follow the body from front to back to examine these structural changes.[1][2]
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Key facts
Assuming that the legs at the front and back were identical would miss important features. The museum describes the front appendages separately from the rear swimming appendages. Different structures occur in different positions within one animal's body.[1]
Time and place
Its principal localities are the Walcott and Raymond quarries on Fossil Ridge in present-day British Columbia, Canada. It is known from Middle Cambrian material in the Burgess Shale Formation. The Cambrian as a whole spans roughly 540–490 million years ago.[1][3][4]
The time range describes source context, not the complete duration of this species.
Size, form and skeleton
The front of the body bears a carapace, eyes and antennae, with a series of appendages extending along the body. The posterior abdominal segments and tail branches are also covered in the species diagnosis. Examine the covering at the front alongside the branching structures at the rear.[1][2]
The complete specimen ROM61141 featured by the museum is 82 mm long.[16]
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Habitat and reproduction
The museum explains that Waptia brooded eggs beneath its carapace. The covering was both an anatomical feature and a space protecting eggs. This small arthropod's body offers clues to reproduction.[1]
Fossil discovery
The museum explains that Walcott's field notebook depicts Waptia, discovered on 31 August 1909, alongside other soft-bodied fossils. Walcott described Waptia in 1912. Its story connects a field record with the research that gave the organism a name.[1][2]
References
- Royal Ontario Museum — Waptia fieldensis species account
- Waptia — Study of a mandibulate arthropod from the Burgess Shale
- International Commission on Stratigraphy (2024) — Geological time chart
- Royal Ontario Museum. The Locality Today.
- Royal Ontario Museum — Waptia fieldensis species account
- International Commission on Stratigraphy (2024) — Geological time chart
- Royal Ontario Museum. The Locality Today.
- Waptia — Study of a mandibulate arthropod from the Burgess Shale
- National Museum of Natural Science — Naraoia spinosa specimen
- International Commission on Stratigraphy (2024) — Geological time chart
- National Museum of Natural Science — Two shields and appendages of Naraoia
- Royal Ontario Museum — Scenella amii
- Waptia fieldensis
- Royal Ontario Museum — Waptia fieldensis species account
- Study of birth in the Devonian — Armour and body of Materpiscis
- Royal Ontario Museum — Waptia fieldensis
Research questions
The museum explains that Waptia's mandibles bore palps and that the terminal branches of its legs consisted of five segments. These structures are compared with Pancrustacea, the group including living crustaceans and hexapods. Its exact relationship to that group remains under discussion.[2][1]
Observation
Move your gaze from the eyes and antennae beside the carapace to the appendages along the body. Following the differences between front and rear appendages all the way to the tail branches reveals the organization of this small body.[1][2]
Related organisms
Naraoia spinosaArthropodsSource time context (not species duration) · ≈ 539–487 MaArthropods of the Burgess Shale and Chengjiang
Waptia and Naraoia are Cambrian arthropods known from different fossil localities. Connect material from the Burgess Shale of present-day Canada and Chengjiang in Yunnan, China, comparing the different arrangements of carapaces or shields and the appendages beneath them.
Scenella amiiMolluscsFossil record age bounds · ≈ 510–497 MaDifferent bodies from the Walcott and Raymond quarries
Scenella and Waptia are both known from the Walcott and Raymond quarries in the Burgess Shale of present-day Canada. These shared Middle Cambrian localities allow Scenella's low conical shell to be examined alongside Waptia's carapace, eyes and appendages.
Materpiscis attenboroughiJawed vertebratesSource time context (not species duration) · ≈ 420–359 MaEggs beneath a carapace, young inside a body
Cambrian Waptia from the Burgess Shale of present-day Canada brooded eggs beneath its carapace, while an embryo and an umbilical connection were reported inside a Devonian Materpiscis fossil from the Gogo Formation of present-day Western Australia. Connect an arthropod and a fish from widely separated periods, comparing where their bodies preserve evidence of the next generation developing.