Waptia fieldensis is documented by a large specimen series and placed among mandibulates; exact pancrustacean position is an analytical result, not ancestry.
claim:taxon:waptia:taxonomyWaptia fieldensis
More than 1,800 specimens document a bivalved mandibulate body plan with mandibles and serial appendages; pancrustacean placement remains analytical.
Represented range508–508 Ma
Content packagecrustaceans-insects
PBDBtxn:121037
Evidence boundary
Automated checks cover structure, identifiers, translations and links only; maintainer and external expert review are not complete.
Claim ledger
The profile represents Burgess Shale material and does not infer Waptia’s complete distribution.
claim:taxon:waptia:biogeographySwimming and feeding modes are inferred from appendages and mandibles; prey, speed and habitual behaviour were not directly observed.
claim:taxon:waptia:ecologyMore than 1,800 specimens, including ROMIP 56432 and ROMIP 64294, document a bivalved carapace, mandibles and serial appendages.
claim:taxon:waptia:morphologyThe 508 Ma display point is a Burgess Shale sample context, not a global species duration or pancrustacean crown age.
claim:taxon:waptia:fossil-rangeKnown limits
- A missing branch or fossil occurrence does not imply biological absence. Internal nodes are not calibrated divergence estimates.
References
- Waptia fieldensis Walcott, a mandibulate arthropod from the middle Cambrian Burgess ShaleVannier, J.; Aria, C.; Taylor, R.S.; Caron, J.-B. · 2018 · DOI 10.1098/rsos.172206
- Open Tree of Life web servicesOpenTreeOfLife Project
- The Paleobiology Database application programming interfacePeters, S.E.; McClennen, M. · 2016 · DOI 10.1017/pab.2015.39
- Denormalized occurrence and taxon tables of the Paleobiology DatabaseThe Paleobiology Database Community; Kocsis, Á.T. · 2026 · DOI 10.5281/zenodo.21620933