#vetulicolian

Species:Y. magnificissimi

Etymology: “Yu Yuan animal,” after an old name for the region where the type specimen was found

Age and Location: Early Cambrian of China

Classification:Eukarya: Opisthokonta: Metazoa: Eumetazoa: Bilateria: ?Deuterostomia: ?Vetulicolia

Yuyuanozoonis a large vetulicolian, with all the taxonomic confusion that that taxonomic assignment implies. The only known specimen is from an individual 20 cm long. It consisted of a large, fusiform anterior region and a relatively short and simple segmented ‘tail’. Like all vetulicolians, it was blind and lacked any obvious external structures aside from gill slits, segmentation, and a mouth. As it had only a small, fairly cylindrical tail and lacked keels that might serve to have stabilized it, Yuyuanozoonwas probably a poor swimmer. Like all vetulicolians, Yuyuanozoonexhibited a variety of confusing traits. Besides the arthropod-like segmented cuticle, Yuyuanozoonappears to have an atrium, an internal cavity that surrounds the pharynx in tunicates. This trait makes Yuyuanzoonone of the most convincingly deuterostome-like, or even tunicate-like, vetulicolians.