The bivalved arthropods 'Isoxys' and 'Tuzoia' with soft-part preservation from the lower Cambrian Emu Bay Shale Lagerstätte (Kangaroo Island, Australia)

Abstract

Abundant material from a new quarry excavated in the lower Cambrian Emu Bay Shale (Kangaroo Island, South Australia) and, particularly, the preservation of softbodied features previously unknown from this Burgess Shaletype locality, permit the revision of two bivalved arthropod taxa described in the late 1970s, 'Isoxys communis' and 'Tuzoia australis'. The collections have also produced fossils belonging to two new species: 'Isoxys glaessneri' and 'Tuzoia sp.' Among the soft parts preserved in these taxa are stalked eyes, digestive structures and cephalic and trunk appendages, rivalling in quality and quantity those described from better-known Lagerstätten, notably the lower Cambrian Chengjiang fauna of China and the middle Cambrian Burgess Shale of Canada.