Ooedigera
| Ooedigera Temporal range: Cambrian Stage 3, | |
|---|---|
| Type specimen | |
| Artist's restoration | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Clade?: | †Vetulicolia |
| Class: | †Vetulicolida |
| Order: | †Vetulicolata |
| Family: | †Vetulicolidae |
| Genus: | †Ooedigera |
| Species: | †O. peeli |
| Binomial name | |
| †Ooedigera peeli Vinther et al. 2011 | |
Ooedigera peeli is an extinct vetulicolian from the Early Cambrian of North Greenland. The front body was flattened horizontally, oval-shaped, likely bearing a reticulated or anastomosing pattern, and had 5 evenly-spaced gill pouches along the midline. The tail was also bulbous and flattened horizontally, but was divided into 7 plates connected by flexible membranes, allowing movement. Ooedigera likely swam by moving side-to-side like a fish. It may have lived in an oxygen minimum zone alongside several predators in an ecosystem based on chemosynthetic microbial mats, and was possibly a deposit or filter feeder living near the seafloor.