Lecythioscopa is a genus of probable archaeopriapulid known from two specimens from the Walcott Quarry from the Middle Cambrian Burgess Shale.

Morphology

The specimens of Lectythioscopa are both missing their posterior portions, leaving a head, comparable to the proboscis of other priapulids, and long trunk, which is curved in both specimens. The animal was probably a burrower due to its external radial symmetry.

Lecythioscopa

History

The species was originally placed as Canadia simplex by Charles Walcott in a 1931 publication based on a single specimen. Simon Conway Morris later identified what was previously considered a specimen of Canadia dubia as sharing similar features, placing them both under the name of Lecythioscopa simplex.

Lecythioscopa

References

Priapulida

†Lecythioscopa

Prehistoric protostome genera

Burgess Shale fossils

Cambrian genus extinctions

it:Lecythioscopa simplex

Lecythioscopa