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Science 2 June 1995:
Vol. 268. no. 5215, pp. 1339 - 1343
DOI: 10.1126/science.268.5215.1339
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Articles

Head Segmentation in Early Cambrian Fuxianhuia: Implications for Arthropod Evolution

Jun-yuan Chen 1, Gui-qing Zhou 1, Gregory D. Edgecombe 2, and Lars Ramsköld 3

1 Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology, Academia Sinica, Chi-Ming-Ssu, Nanjing 210008, People's Republic of China
2 Australian Museum, Post Office Box A285 Sydney South, New South Wales 2000, Australia
3 Museum of Palaeontology, University of Uppsala, Norbyvägen 22, S-752 36 Uppsala, Sweden

The arthropod Fuxianhuia from the Chengjiang fauna displays primitive aspects of cephalic segmentation and trunk limb morphology that indicate a basal position within Euarthropoda. The cephalon consists of an eye-bearing sclerite that articulates with a head shield bearing antennules and subchelate appendages. Eye stalks, antennules, and subchelate appendages are proto-, deuto-, and tritocerebral limbs and organs, respectovely. The anterior position of the eye-bearing sclerite parallels the embryonic origin of arthropod eye lobes. The head of Fuxianhuia includes the acron and one somite and is regarded as a protocephalon. The definitive head of arthropods may have fused separate eye-bearing and appendage-bearing sclerites.

Submitted on November 10, 1994
Accepted on March 1, 1995


THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
Early Cambrian Food Chain: New Evidence from Fossil Aggregates in the Maotianshan Shale Biota, SW China.
(2005)
Palaios 20, 3-26
A NEW SOFT-BODIED FAUNA: THE PIOCHE FORMATION OF NEVADA.
(2003)
Journal of Paleontology 77, 674-690
Response: Classification of the Arthropod Fuxianhuia.
G. D. Edgecombe and L. Ramskold (1996)
Science 272, 747-748
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