Heliomedusa orienta Chengjiang Biota Yunnan Province China

The brachiopod Heliomedusa orienta is a species found in the Chengjiang biota. The source of the specific name is easy to understand as original discoverers thought it to be a jellyfish. The diversity of biota found in the Chengjiang biota of soft-tissue fossils is amazing: algae, medusiforms, sponges, priapulids, annelid-like worms, echinoderms, arthropods (including trilobites), hemichordates, chordates. Numerous problematic forms are known as well, some of which may have represented failed attempts at diversity that did not persist to the present day. While the taxon had a widespread distribution throughout eastern Yunnan Province, this one comes from the most famous Chengjiang Biota locale: Mao Tian Hill, site of the original discovery.

More About the Chengjiang biota: The Maotianshan Shales come from lower Cambrian deposits in the Chiungchussu formation, famous for their Konservat Lagerst�tten - deposits known for the exceptional preservation of fossilized organisms or traces. There are some forty Cambrian fossil locations worldwide exhibiting exquisite preservation of rarely preserved, non-mineralized soft tissue, and the The Maotianshan shales are one of them. They are comparable to the fossils of the Burgess Shale and take their name from Maotianshan Hill in Chengjiang County, Yunnan Province, China. The Chengjiang biota has all the animal groups found in the Burgess Shale but is ten million years older. It strongly supports the idea that metazoans diversified earlier and faster in the early Cambrian than does the Burgess Shale fauna by itself. The preservation and diverse assemblage of fossils in the Maotianshan shale makes it the world�s most important locality for understanding the evolution of early multi-cellular life, and especially the members of phylum Chordata.

Matrix Size: 40mm W X 35mm H X 10mm D, Heliomedusa size: Approximately 7mm diameter

Ships in a display box with information and COA. Stands and cube not included.

From an old scientific estate collection. Collected in 1989.

Click on image to enlarge.

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