Class Seticoronaria and Phylogeny of the Phylum Priapulida

Abstract

The Recent class Seticoronaria (Priapulida) as represented by the genus Maccabeus is compared with the newly described Priapulida from the Middle Cambrian Burgess Shale. It is concluded that the Seticoronaria retained such plesiomorphic characters of the Cambrian Priapulida as sedentary life and food trapping tentacles, whereas the other Recent class, the Priapulomorpha, is the derived, apomorphic branch of this small phylum. The bearing of this hypothesis on an eventual phylogenetic sequence of the Metazoa is discussed.