New study of Stanleycaris, a genus of radiodont from the Cambrian Burgess Shale, with the brain pres

[Faelrin]

I suck at titles, but anyways I stumbled upon this article, and went digging for the paper. It checks three of my boxes, it's a radiodont, so a member of Dinocaridida, it's from the Cambrian period, and it's from the Burgess Shale, so yeah I'm definitely interested in this critter, and had to share this here, since I know some folks will appreciate it too. Obligatory I want a figure of this wonderful ancient critter some day. Edit: It's so small they could make it life size, lol. Less then 20 cm or 8 inches long.

It's not a new genus, but this year marks the best year for it so far, with over 200 specimens (!) described in this paper. At least one specimen, if not more (paper appears to be paywalled), has preserved its brain which will great to learn more about these fascinating ancient animals. It also has three eyes apparently which is interesting. Not too many arthropods come to mind with that many eyes (but then again neither does Opabinia's five for that matter), but maybe I just don't know a lot of arthropods that do.

The paper does appear to be paywalled, but at least they gave us this nice graphical abstract to take a look at. Have a look:

[ceratopsian]

I stumbled across this too late last night. Quite fascinating. phys.org had a good summary.

https://phys.org/news/2022-07-million-year-old-fossilized-brains-stanleycaris-prompt.html

[Halichoeres]

Obligatory I want a figure of this wonderful ancient critter some day. Edit: It's so small they could make it life size, lol. Less then 20 cm or 8 inches long.

This is my feeling about every Cambrian weirdo too! The latest one to catch my eye was Balhuticaris.

[Faelrin]

@Halichoeres Thanks for mentioning that one. Looked up the paper for it, and wow it seems so graceful, yet strange. Don't think I've seen an arthropod look that way before. The artwork accompanying the paper really helps me to imagine what a wonderful animal that would have been to see, if anything like it was still around.

[Halichoeres]

Through my work I now have access to the pdf of the Stanleycaris paper. If anyone wants to read it, pm me your email address and I'll send it to you tomorrow.