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Vetulicola Fossil range: Cambrian
Vetulicola cuneata
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia Superphylum: Deuterostomia Phylum: Vetulicolia Shu, et. al. 2001 Family: Vetulicolidae Genus: Vetulicola
Species
V. cuneata V. gantoucunensis V. rectangulata

Vetulicola is a genus of small animals of uncertain affinity, known from early-Cambrian fossils known from the Chengjiang biota of China.

Vetulicola cuneata (Hou, 1987) has a body composed of two distinct parts of approximately equal length. The front part is rectangular with a carapace-like structure of four rigid cuticular plates, with a large mouth at the front end. The posterior section is slender, strongly cuticularised and placed dorsally. Paired openings connecting the pharynx to the outside run down the sides. These features are interpreted as possible primitive gill slits. Vetulicola cuneata could be up to 7 cm long. The Vetulicola are thought to have been swimmers that were either filter feeders or detrivores.

Other Vetulicola species described are Vetulicola gantoucunensis (Luo, et al, 2005) and Vetulicola rectangulata (Luo & Hou, 1999). However, some experts suspect that V. rectangulata were actually elongated specimens of V. cuneata.

Vetulicola's taxonomic position is controversial. Vetulicola cuneata was originally assigned to the crustaceans, but the lack of legs, the gill slits, and the four plates in the "carapace" were unlike any known arthropod. Shu, et al. placed Vetulicola in the new family Vetulicolidae, order Vetulicolida and phylum Vetulicolia, among the deuterostomes. Shu (2003) later argued that the vetulicolians were an early, specialized side-branch of deuterostomes. Dominguez and Jefferies classify Vetulicola as an urochordate, and probably a stem-group appendicularian. In contrast, Butterfield places Vetulicola among the arthropods.

• Palaeos' Page on Vetulicolia [1]

• Butterfield,Nicholas J. 2003. Exceptional Fossil Preservation and the Cambrian Explosion. Integrative and Comparative Biology. 43(1):166-177. [2] - URL retrieved June 22, 2006
• Dominguez, Patricio and Jefferies, Richard. 2003. Fossil evidence on the origin of appendicularians. International Urochordate Meeting 2003. Abstract at [3] - URL retrieved June 22, 2006
• LUO, Huilin, FU, Xiaoping, HU, Shixue, LI, Yong, CHEN, Liangzhong, YOU, Ting and LIU, Qi. 2005. New Vetulicoliids from the Lower Cambrian Guanshan Fauna,Kunming. Abstract available at [4] - URL retrieved June 22, 2006
• Shu, D.-G., Conway Morris, S., Han, J., Chen, L., Zhang, X.-L., Zhang, Z.-F., Liu, H.-Q., Li, Y., and Liu, J.-N. 2001. Primitive Deuterostomes from the Chengjiang Lagerstätte (Lower Cambrian, China), Nature, 414:419-424. (November 11, 2001). [5]. - URL retrieved June 22, 2006
• Shu, Degan. 2003. A paleontological perspective of vertebrate origin. Chinese Science Bulletin, Vol. 48 No. 8 725-735. April, 2003. [6] - URL retrieved June 22, 2006
• Biota of the Maotianshan Shale, Chengjiang China - URL retrieved June 22, 2006
• Very Complete Vetulicola, An Enigmatic Fossil from Chengjiang - URL retrieved June 22, 2006