Annelids from the Cambrian (Wuliuan Stage, Miaolingian) Spence Shale Lagerstätte of northern Utah, USA.

The Spence Shale Member of the Langston Formation in northern Utah and southern Idaho preserves generally non-biomineralized fossil assemblages referred to as the Spence Shale Lagerstätte. The biota of this Lagerstätte is dominated by panarthropods, both biomineralized and soft-bodied examples, but also preserves diverse infaunal organisms, including species of scalidophorans, echinoderms, lobopodians, stalked filter feeders, and various problematic taxa. To date, however, only a single annelid fossil, originally assigned to Canadia sp., has been described from the Spence Shale. This lone specimen and another recently collected specimen were analyzed in this study using scanning electron microscopy and energy dispersive X-ray spectrometry. The previous occurrence is reassigned to Burgessochaeta cf. B. setigera Walcott, 1911. The new fossil, however, is identified as a novel polychaete taxon, Shaihuludia shurikeni gen. et sp. nov., characterized by the presence of fused, bladed chaetae and a wide body. The occurrence of Burgessochaeta is the first outside the Burgess Shale and its vicinity, whereas Shaihuludia shurikeni gen. et sp. nov. adds to the diversity of annelids in the middle Cambrian and highlights the diversity of the Spence Shale Lagerstätte.

Soft-bodied fossils from the upper Valongo Formation (Middle Ordovician: Dapingian-Darriwilian) of northern Portugal.

Soft-bodied preservation is common in the Cambrian but comparatively rare in the Ordovician. Here, a new deposit preserving soft-bodied fossils is reported from the Middle Ordovician (Dapingian-Darriwilian) upper Valongo Formation of northern Portugal. The deposit contains the first known occurrences of soft-bodied fossils from the Middle Ordovician (Dapingian-Darriwilian) of Portugal and is the first Ordovician example of soft-tissue preservation involving carbonaceous films from the Iberian Peninsula. It also represents the lone deposit of soft-bodied fossils from the Middle Ordovician of northern Gondwana. Thus temporally, it lies between the exceptional deposits of the Lower Ordovician of Fezouata (Morocco) and the Upper Ordovician of the Soom Shale (South Africa); it also serves as a biogeographic link between these and the various Ordovician soft-bodied deposits in Laurentia. The soft-bodied fossils come from the deep-water slates of the upper part of the Valongo Formation and include a discoidal fossil questionably referable to Patanacta, wiwaxiid sclerites, and a possible pseudoarctolepid arthropod.