A priapulid larva from the middle Cambrian (Wuliuan Stage) of North Greenland (Laurentia)

Abstract

A single phosphatised specimen from the middle Cambrian Henson Gletscher Formation (Miaolingian Series, Wuliuan Stage) of North Greenland is interpreted as the hatching larva of a total­group priapulid worm. A plated lorica is not present but probably was developed at a later larval stage, by comparison with the described development of extant Priapulus caudatus and Halicryptus spinulosus . A characteristic priapulid introvert with scalids is not seen but it was likely withdrawn in the available specimen. The new find is consistent with a similar ontogeny in Cambrian priapulid cycloneuralians to that seen in their present day relatives. New