A New Ichnogenus Kailidiscus Produced by Attachment from the Middle Cambrian Kaili Formation in Taijiang, Guizhou Province, China

摘要

Over 190 specimens of an attachment ichnofossil Kailidiscus (n. ichnogen.) have been found in the Kaili Bitoa, a Burgess Shale-type biota, from the middle Kaili Formation (early Middle Cambrian) in Taijiang County, Guizhou Province, southern China. Kailidiscus is an epichnia with a circular to oval attachment platform, on which there is a carbonaceous film probably formed by the body of the living organism. Structures such as a marginal furrow, an inner and outer marginal ride, many convex fold-ridges, and a large caved peripheral furrow on the attachment platform may be the result of basal tissues of a sessile organism that wrinkled to increase the attachment’s surface area. The Kailidiscus organism may have been a sessile cnidarian attached to the muddy seafloor. Kailidiscus organisms lived in relatively quiet water, and were buried by a sudden influx of sediment.