Canadaspis

Taxobox
fossil_range = Cambrian


image_caption = "Canadaspis perfecta" & "Waptia fieldensis"

---

regnum = Animalia
phylum = Arthropoda
subphylum = Crustacea
classis = ?Malacostraca
ordo = Canadaspidida
familia = Canadaspididae
genus = "Canadaspis"
genus_authority = Briggs, 1978
subdivision_ranks = Other species
subdivision =
* "C. perfecta" (type)
* "C. laevigata"

"Canadaspis" ("Shield of Canada") was a Cambrian genus of crustacean or euarthropod, a benthic feeder that moved mainly by walking and possibly used its biramous appendages to stir mud in search of food. The genus is placed within subclass Phyllocarida in class Malacostraca that includes shrimps and lobsters.

Once the food was obtained, "Canadaspis" used its mandibles to grind larger particles. It is possible that its gill flaps were used for locomotion. "Canadapsis perfecta", the type species, comes from the Cambrian-age Burgess Shale in British Columbia, Canada. "Canadaspis" are also found in different formations of the House Range of western Utah as well as the Pioche Shale of Nevada. "Canadaspis laevigata", coming from the Chengjiang biota and thus some 10 million years older than "Canadapsis perfecta", is an equivocal member of the genus. Some scientists believe "Canadaspis laevigata" to be a more primitive Crustaceomorpha antecedent of "Canadaspis", and others consider it a bi-valved arthropod of uncertain affinity.

The phylogeny of "Canadaspis", like many Cambrian arthropods is in a state of flux.

References

*cite web |url=http://www.nmnh.si.edu/paleo/shale/pcanadap.htm |publisher=National Museum of Natural History |accessdate=11 May |accessyear= 2006 |title="Canadapsis perfecta" (a crustacean)
*cite journal |quotes=no |author=Briggs, D. |year=1978 |title=The morphology, mode of life, and affinities of "Canadaspis perfecta" (Crustacea: Phyllocarida), Middle Cambrian, Burgess Shale, British Columbia |journal=Phil. Trans. R. Soc. Lond. B |volume=281 |issue=984 |pages=439–487 |doi=10.1098/rstb.1978.0005
*cite web |url=http://www.fossilmuseum.net/ |publisher=The Virtual Fossil Museum |title="Canadaspis" from Chengjiang and Utah |accessdate=28 September |accessyear=2006
*cite journal |quotes=no |url=http://jpaleontol.geoscienceworld.org/cgi/content/abstract/77/4/674 |author=Lieberman, A. |year=2003 |title=New Soft-Bodied Fauana: The Pioche Formation of Nevada |journal=Journal of Paleontology |volume=77 |issue=4 |pages=674–690 |doi=10.1666/0022-3360(2003)077<0674:ANSFTP>2.0.CO;2 |doilabel=10.1666/0022-3360(2003)077<0674:ANSFTP>2.0.CO;2