Xandarella
| Xandarella Temporal range: | |
|---|---|
| Fossil of X. spectaculum | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Arthropoda |
| Clade: | †Artiopoda |
| Subphylum: | †Trilobitomorpha |
| (unranked): | †Xandarellida |
| Genus: | †Xandarella Hou et al. 1991 |
| Type species | |
| Xandarella spectaculum Hou et al. 1991 | |
Xandarella is an extinct genus of xandarellid artiopodan known from the Cambrian of China, the type species Xandarella spectaculum was described in 1991 from the Cambrian Stage 3 aged Chengjiang Biota in China. Although an additional species Xandarella mauretanica was described from the Cambrian Stage 5 Tatelt Formation in Morocco in 2017, which preserved only the ventral anatomy, it is later found that is a species of trilobite Gigoutella instead. Like other xandarellids, the exoskeleton is unmineralised. The cephalon has pronounced eye slits, presumably derived from ancestral ventral stalked eyes.