Vauxia

Vauxia; Temporal range: Cambrian Stage 3 - Late Silurian PreꞒ Ꞓ O S D C P T J K Pg N
	Vauxia from the Walcott Quarry of the Burgess Shale (Middle Cambrian)
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Porifera
Class:	Demospongiae
Order:	Verongiida
Family:	†Vauxiidae
Genus:	†Vauxia; Walcott, 1920
Species
	V. ampliata Rigby 1986 ; V. bellula Walcott, 1920 ; V. densa Walcott, 1920 ; V. dignata Walcott, 1920 ; V. gracilenta Walcott, 1920 ; ?V. magna Rigby, 1980 ; V. venata Walcott, 1920;

Vauxia is an extinct genus of demosponge that had a distinctive branching mode of growth. Each branch consisted of a network of strands. Vauxia also had a skeleton of spongin (flexible organic material) common to modern day sponges. Much like Choia and other sponges, Vauxia fed by extracting nutrients from the water.

Herpetogaster, an extinct genus of Early Cambrian animals, attached to branches of Vauxia through a flexible, extensible stolon. It is not known whether the attachment was permanent.^[2]

Vauxia is named after Mount Vaux, a mountain in Yoho National Park, British Columbia. It was first described in 1920 by Charles Doolittle Walcott.^[3]

Vauxia fossils are found in North America, specifically in the United States and Canada.^[4]

References

^ Botting, J. (2007). "'Cambrian' demosponges in the Ordovician of Morocco: Insights into the early evolutionary history of sponges". Geobios. 40 (6): 737–748. Bibcode:2007Geobi..40..737B. doi:10.1016/j.geobios.2007.02.006.
^ Canada, Royal Ontario Museum and Parks (2011-06-10). "The Burgess Shale". burgess-shale.rom.on.ca. Archived from the original on 2020-06-16. Retrieved 2018-10-27.
^ Walcott, C. D. (1920). "Cambrian geology and paleontology IV:6—Middle Cambrian Spongiae". Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections. 67: 261–364.
^ Paleobiology Database

External links

"Vauxia gracilenta". Burgess Shale Fossil Gallery. Virtual Museum of Canada. 2011. Archived from the original on 2020-11-12.
Fauna and Flora of the Burgess Shale

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[1] Botting, J. (2007). "'Cambrian' demosponges in the Ordovician of Morocco: Insights into the early evolutionary history of sponges". Geobios. 40 (6): 737–748. Bibcode:2007Geobi..40..737B. doi:10.1016/j.geobios.2007.02.006.

[2] Canada, Royal Ontario Museum and Parks (2011-06-10). "The Burgess Shale". burgess-shale.rom.on.ca. Archived from the original on 2020-06-16. Retrieved 2018-10-27.

[Walcott1920MiddleCambrianSpongiae-3] Walcott, C. D. (1920). "Cambrian geology and paleontology IV:6—Middle Cambrian Spongiae". Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections. 67: 261–364.

[4] Paleobiology Database

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