Hallucigenia facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Hallucigenia |
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| Fossil of Hallucigenia from the Burgess shale | |
Scientific classification  |
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| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Stem group: | Onychophora |
| Clade: | †Hallucishaniids |
| Family: | †Hallucigeniidae |
| Genus: | †Hallucigenia Conway Morris, 1977 |
| Species | |
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| Synonyms | |
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Canadia sparsa |
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Hallucigenia is an extinct genus of animal found as fossils in the Middle Cambrian Burgess Shale formation of British Columbia, Canada. Another species is found in the Lower Cambrian Maotianshan shale of China.
Hallucigenia was thought by Stephen Jay Gould to be unrelated to any living species, but most palaeontologists now believe that the species was a velvet worm, a relative of modern arthropods.
Unlike its contemporary Aysheaia, Hallucigenia has very little resemblance to modern Onychophora. The elongated, and clawed legs bear little resemblance to the paired annulated legs of the Onychophora. It is unknown what the spines were made of and how much 'protection' they offered. It is not easy to explain why 30 or more specimens — each thought to have seven pairs of rather long, flexible legs — do not show even one example of paired legs. But at least this reconstruction of the animal can plausibly walk, and the spines serve a reasonable purpose. A picture of this reconstruction as well as a photograph of an actual fossil can be seen on the Geological Survey of Canada's website.
Images for kids
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Reconstructions of H. fortis, H. hongmeia, and H. sparsa in scale.
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Various interpretations of Hallucigenia sparsa throughout the history of study
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Specimen with obvious spines
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Restoration of H. sparsa
See also
In Spanish: Hallucigenia para niños
