Amiskwia

Amiskwia is a small, probably gelatinous, animal of unknown affinity from the Burgess shale near Field, BC. The preservation of the 5 known specimens leaves much to be desired. The head contains two short tentacles. The body has two small lateral (side) fins and a flattened tail. The gut runs straight from the head almost to the tail. Amiskwia vaguely resembles a tiny walrus constructed by a magician out of balloons. Amiskwia was originally described by C. D. Walcott[?] who thought he saw three buccal spines as a chaetognath worm. Some workers held out for it being an nemertean[?]. Morris-1977 regards it as being the single known species in an otherwise unknown phylum.

Amiskwia is thought to have been a swimming animal trapped inadvertently in the turbid flows that formed the Burgess Shale deposits. There is one species, Amiskwia sagittiformis.

External link

• http://www.nmnh.si.edu/paleo/shale/pamisk.htm