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Pikaia facts for kids

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Pikaia
Temporal range: Mid Cambrian
Pikaia3ZICA.png
Scientific classification
Kingdom:
Animalia
Phylum:
Chordata
Subphylum:
Cephalochordata
Genus:
Pikaia
Species:
P. gracilens

Pikaia gracilens is regarded as the earliest known primitive chordate from the Middle Cambrian fossil found near Mount Pika in the Burgess Shale of British Columbia. It was discovered by Charles Walcott in 1911. Walcott classified it as a Polychaete worm. It was about 40 mm in length and swam above the sea-floor. Pikaia may have filtered particles from the water as it swam along. Only 60 specimens have been found to date.

Images for kids

  • Pikaia NT small

    Life reconstruction of Pikaia gracilens

  • Pikaia in Brine Seep

    Pikaia trying to escape a brine seep at the bottom of the Cathedral Escarpment, in the Burgess Shale

  • Burgess scale2

    Scale diagram of various Burgess Shale invertebrates, P. gracilens in yellow

  • Pikaia Smithsonian

    Fossil specimen on display at the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C.

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