Ctenoimbricata is an extinct genus of bilaterally symmetrical echinoderm, which lived during the early Middle Cambrian period of what is now Spain.[1] It contains one species, Ctenoimbricata spinosa. It may be the most basal known echinoderm. It resembles the extinct ctenocystoids and cinctans, particularly the basal ctenocystoid Courtessolea. Ctenoimbricata is interpreted as a deposit-feeding pharyngeal basket feeder. It was relatively small, with a body 20 millimetres (0.79 in) long.

Ctenoimbricata
Temporal range: Wuliuan
Artist's restoration
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Superphylum: Deuterostomia
Clade: Ambulacraria
Phylum: Echinodermata
Genus: Ctenoimbricata
Zamora, Rahman, and Smith 2012
Type species
Ctenoimbricata spinosa
Zamora, Rahman, and Smith 2012

References edit

  1. ^ Zamora, Samuel; Rahman, Imran A.; Smith, Andrew B. (2012-06-06). "Plated Cambrian bilaterians reveal the earliest stages of echinoderm evolution". PLoS ONE. 7 (6). Keith A. Crandall (ed.): –38296. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0038296. ISSN 1932-6203. PMC 3368939.