Vetulicolians

Vetulicolians are members of an extinct phylum of animals that is difficult to classify: they have characteristics suggesting affinities with groups as distantly related as arthropods and deuterostomes (e.g., echinoderms and chordates).

Skeemella clavula, a species best known from a KUMIP specimen from the Middle Cambiran of Utah, has played an important role in discussions of the relationships of vetulicolians to one another, as well as to other animal groups and was published in a recent paper by Briggs et al. (2005):

Briggs, D. E. G., Lieberman, B. S., Halgedahl, S. L. & Jarrard, R. D. 2005. A new metazoan from the Middle Cambrian of Utah and the nature of the Vetulicolia. Palaeontology, 48(4): 681-686.

Besides Skeemella clavula, the phylum Vetulicolia is also represented in the Middle Cambrian of Utah by multiple specimens of Banffia, which are the subject of ongoing research at the University of Kansas.

Gallery of Vetulicolians

Note: Marks on all scale bars are centimeters (cm).

Skeemella clavula Briggs, Lieberman, Halgedahl & Jarrard, 2005

a close up of a yellow rock with a snake like imprint coming from the bottom left that leads to a circle head on the top right
KUMIP 310501 (Holotype; part). Pierson Cove Formation, Drum Mountains, Millard County, Utah. Figure 1.1 in Briggs et al. (2005). Counterpart is University of Utah specimen UU 04083.01.

Banffia sp. Walcott, 1911c

gray rock with a dark smudge of a spear head on the left that forms into a walnut shaped body
KUMIP 314017 (Part). Spence Shale Member of the Langston Formation, Wellsville Mountains, Box Elder County, Utah.