Mackenzia is an elongated bag-like animal known from the Middle Cambrian Burgess Shale. It attached directly to hard surfaces, such as brachiopod shells. 14 specimens of Mackenzia are known from the Greater Phyllopod bed, where they comprise <0.1% of the community.[1] Mackenzia was originally described by Charles Walcott in 1911 as a holothurian echinoderm.[2] Later, Mackenzia is thought to be a cnidarian and appears most similar to modern sea anemones.[3]
| Mackenzia Temporal range:
Middle Cambrian, | |
|---|---|
| |
| Mackenzia costalis | |
Scientific classification 
| |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Cnidaria |
| Class: | Hexacorallia |
| Order: | Actiniaria |
| Family: | †Mackenziidae |
| Genus: | †Mackenzia Walcott, 1911 |
| Species: | †M. costalis
|
| Binomial name | |
| †Mackenzia costalis Walcott, 1911
| |
References
edit- ^ Caron, Jean-Bernard; Jackson, Donald A. (October 2006). "Taphonomy of the Greater Phyllopod Bed community, Burgess Shale". PALAIOS. 21 (5): 451–65. Bibcode:2006Palai..21..451C. doi:10.2110/palo.2003.P05-070R. JSTOR 20173022. S2CID 53646959.
- ^ Durham, J. W. (1974). "Systematic Position of Eldonia ludwigi Walcott". Journal of Paleontology. 48 (4): 750–755. JSTOR 1303225.
- ^ Conway Morris, S. (1993). "Ediacaran-like fossils in Cambrian Burgess Shale–type faunas of North America". Palaeontology. 36 (31–0239): 593–635.
External links
edit- "Mackenzia costalis". Burgess Shale Fossil Gallery. Virtual Museum of Canada. 2011. Archived from the original on 2020-11-12.
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