Taxonomy

Phylum: Arthropoda

Class: uncertain

Order：Bradoriida

Family: Kunmingellidae

Genus：Kunmingella

Specie: Kunmingella douvillei

Description:

Shield with a broad anterodorsal lobe; posterior lobe elongate, straight to weakly crescent shaped, tapering, extends from just behind valve centre to immediately in front of the posterior cardinal corner.Broad, shallow depression occurs between anterodorsal and posterior lobes, deepest mid-dorsally. A low, narrow latero-admarginal ridge is entire between cardinal corners. Valves smooth to finely granulose.The assumed division between the head and the trunk is indicated by the disposition of appendages: trunk appendages point backwards, head appendages forward. The body has 10 limb-bearing segments, five each in the head and the trunk, each bearing a single pair of appendages, the limb bases of which are not preserved.The adult body has a maximum width of about 1.5 mm and narrows posteriorly from the sixth segment. Segments 2–8 are typically 0.5 mm long axially.The posteriormost segments, including the tiny triangular-shaped tailpiece, form a cone-shaped termination to the trunk that protrudes beyond the posterior margin of the shield.A pair of lateral eyes occurs just in front of the insertion point of the first appendage (antenna) at the site of the anterodorsal node of the shield.The first, uniramous appendage is about 2.5 mm long, tapers distally and consists of five podomeres, of which typically the distal three protrude beyond the shield anteriorly.There are five to six short, stiff setae on the outer and distal edges of the distal-most podomere.Podomeres 2–4, at least, each have an endite distally on their inner margins, with the endite of at least the third and fourth podomeres bearing splays of setae.Appendages 2-8 are biramous.The four post-antennal cephalic appendages can each be traced back to a discrete body segment; each endopod bears a single elongate endite on the inner margin of each podomere, but it cannot be determined whether any of the exopods are fringed by marginal setae (as is the case with the exopods of the trunk appendages). Each endopod of trunk appendages 6–8 has a single endite on (possibly the inner margin of) each podomere and each exopod bears stiff and distally progressively longer setae on its distal outer and inner margins.The ninth and tenth pairs of appendages are uniramous.The ninth appendage is narrow,elongate, about 2 mm long excluding the short terminal ‘claw-like’ structure and posteriorly it projects well beyond the shield. It comprises at least five podomeres, each about 0.5–0.75 mm long, with setae originating from the inner surface of each podomere;adjacent podomeres are geniculate. The tenth appendage is about 1 mm long and consists of at least three podomeres each bearing short, stiff setae, at least six of which occur on the distal-most podomere.

Age & Localities

Age：Cambrian Series 2, Stage 3,Yu’anshan Member, Heilinpu Formation

Principal localities: Chengjiang biota (Haikou,Kunming area and Chengjiang area, Yunnan Province, South China)