Pambdelurion whittingtoni
Overview
Nekton
Nekton refers to the aggregate of actively swimming aquatic organisms in a body of water able to move independently of water currents....
ic organism from the Sirius Passet
Sirius Passet
Sirius Passet is a Cambrian Lagerstätte in Greenland. The Sirius Passet Lagerstätte was named after the Sirius sledge patrol that operates in North Greenland. It comprises six localities located on the eastern shore of J.P. Koch Fjord in the far north of Greenland. It was discovered in 1984 by A....
Lagerstätte
Lagerstätte
A Lagerstätte is a sedimentary deposit that exhibits extraordinary fossil richness or completeness.Palaeontologists distinguish two kinds....
, from Cambrian
Cambrian
The Cambrian is the first geological period of the Paleozoic Era, lasting from Mya ; it is succeeded by the Ordovician. Its subdivisions, and indeed its base, are somewhat in flux. The period was established by Adam Sedgwick, who named it after Cambria, the Latin name for Wales, where Britain's...
Greenland
Greenland
Greenland is an autonomous country within the Kingdom of Denmark, located between the Arctic and Atlantic Oceans, east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Though physiographically a part of the continent of North America, Greenland has been politically and culturally associated with Europe for...
. Its anatomy strongly suggests that it, along with its relative Kerygmachela kierkegaardi
Kerygmachela kierkegaardi
Kerygmachela kierkegaardi was a blind nektonic organism from the Sirius Passet Lagerstätte, from Cambrian Greenland. Its anatomy strongly suggests that it, along with its relative Pambdelurion whittingtoni, was either an anomalocarid or a close relative thereof...
, was either an anomalocarid
Anomalocarid
AnomalocarididsNeolatin compound word from Greek ἀνώμαλος anomalos and καρίς karis , meaning "strange shrimp". Note that while "Anomalocarid" is a widely used alternative spelling, the double "id" at the end is technically the correct form, for the reasons given in...
or a close relative thereof.
P. whittingtoni had a pair of massive anterior limbs that corresponded to the feeding limbs of other anomalocarids. The anterior limbs had a row of flexible, hair-like spines that corresponded with each segment of each limb.