Banffia
Name: Banffia
(From Banff).
Phonetic: Banf-e-ah.
Named By: Charles Walcott - 1911.
Classification: Deuterostomia?, Vetulicolia?
See main text.
Species: B. constricta
(type), Banffia episoma.
Diet: Uncertain, but possibly a filter or deposit
feeder.
Size: Up to 10 centimetres long.
Known locations: Canada, Alberta - Burgess
Shale.
Time period: Cambrian
Fossil representation: Hundreds of individuals
preserved flat upon shale.
There
is much on-going uncertainty about exactly what kind of creatures
Banffia actually were, and differing opinions
place them either
within the Arthropoda, Vetulicolia or Urochordata. At up to ten
centimetres long, Banffia were quite large when
compared to many of
the creatures of the Burgess Shale. The body is very interesting
because in life it would have been twisted in a clockwise spiral. The
body can be equally divided into anterior (front) and posterior
(rear) sections, the posterior section is also segmented. There
are no gills, and an endostyle is also lacking, and aside from what
appear to be some antennae, there are no appendages. It is the lack
of these diagnostic features which makes it difficult to be certain as
to exactly what Banffia were.
Possible
close relatives of Banffia were Skeemella.
Further reading
- Banffia constricta, a putative vetulicolid
from the Middle
Cambrian Burgess Shale, J. B. Caron - 2007.
- The Limbless Animal Banffia constricta from the Burgess Shale (Middle
Cambrian, Canada): A Stem-Group Arthropod? - Jean-Bernard Caron - 2014.
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