The Lost Monograph 021

Various organisms from the Chengjiang Fauna, of Early to Middle Cambrian Yunnan.

At the very top are a pair of semi-dwarf vetulicolid vetulicolians, Nanicola wudingensis. It appears to be descended from, or otherwise closely related to Beidazoon, though is much, much larger, with Nanicola's carapace being about the size and shape of a hulled lotus seed.

Below N. wudingensis is a primitive arrowworm, Yucong extensognathus.

Below Y. extensognathus is a basal ctenophorid, Phoenicascus stromatopterus, representing a possible transition between the sessile, frond-like Stromatoveris, and free-swimming forms. P. stromatopterus has a body very similar to Stromatoveris, save that it has no holdfast, and the comb-bearing structures of the "frond" are beginning to migrate across the equator of the body.

The meatball-like organism at the center-bottom is the vetulocystid echinoderm Haidi globorex. Its trunk is attached to what used to be a hyolith shell.

The two organisms flanking Haidi are a pair of Pseudoblastus wudingensis, a species of lophotrophozoan related to Phlogites. They are attached to a trilobite spine.