Explore this animal in Size of Extinct Animals ↗
518 / Paleozoic
Kerygmachela
Kerygmachela kierkegaardi
Long frontal appendages, side flaps and tail spines record a stem-panarthropod body.
View original image · 1600 × 1067- Time range
- About 518 million years ago
- Final stage
- Early Cambrian
- Geographic range
- Cool shallow sea · Greenland
01 / DEFINITION & ECOLOGY
What was Kerygmachela?
Kerygmachela (Kerygmachela kierkegaardi) was an extinct organism known from About 518 million years ago, with a range in Cool shallow sea · Greenland.
Life and ecology
It swam above the bottom and swept tiny prey to its mouth with spiny limbs.
02 / DISAPPEARANCE
Why did Kerygmachela disappear?
Cambrian arthropods diversified, but a younger fauna does not by itself show that they replaced this stem-group form.
03 / EVIDENCE
How do scientists know about Kerygmachela?
Sirius Passet fossils preserve appendages, flaps, gut and nervous structures.
04 / SOURCES & FURTHER READING
Check the source record
Use the scientific name to compare taxonomy, occurrence records and the fossil record. Database coverage and classifications may differ.
05 / REVISION HISTORY
How has this record changed?
- Rewrote an extinction cause that presented environmental or faunal turnover as established; it is now given as context the record does not prove.
- Verified authoritative entity sources and added three responsive reconstruction sizes.
- Initial bilingual species record published.
06 / CORRECTIONS & ADDITIONS