Burgess Shale Canadaspis perfecta

Description: Canadaspis perfecta is a bivalved arthropod found in the Bugess Shale Fauna of British Columbia. It is the only taxon from the region known from both single and multiple examples that presumably succumbed together. It was presumably a benthic organism that made a living walking on the seafloor, using its limbs to sir up the bottom sediment It is the type species of a genus also found in deposits in Utah and Nevada. An older species Canadaspis laevigata is known from the Chengjiang Biota of China. Note the abdomen and partial legs seen outside the carapace. This wonderful example shows incredible detail for a specimen more than a half billion years of age.