| Leanchoilia Temporal range: Burgess shale |
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|---|---|
| Above: Fossil of a Leanchoilia superlata on display at the Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto. Below: Reconstruction. |
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| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Arthropoda |
| Class: | †Megacheira |
| Order: | †Leanchoilida |
| Family: | †Leanchoiliidae |
| Genus: | †Leanchoilia Walcott |
| Species | |
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Leanchoilia superlata (type) |
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Leanchoilia is a four-eyed arachnomorph arthropod known from the Cambrian Burgess shale. It was about 5cm long and had long, whip-like feelers mounted on frontal arm-like appendages. Its guts are sometimes preserved in three dimensions.[1]
Leancholia is found in the Burgess Shale in Canada.
Two species are tentatively accepted today: the type species L. superlata and the recently-revalidated L. persephone. They may however be examples of sexual dimorphism.[2]55 specimens of Leanchoilia are known from the Greater Phyllopod bed, where they comprise 0.1% of the community.[3]
Leanchoilia illecebrosa Ancient Arthropod from Chengjiang The Virtual Fossil Museum