Early Cambrian crown-group crustacean analysis

Abstract

Crown-group crustaceans (Eucrustacea) are common in the fossil record of the past 500 million years back to the early Ordovician period, and very rare representatives are also known from the late Middle and Late Cambrian. With phosphatized cuticle and three-dimensional completion of soft parts, ‘Orsten’-type fossils, which are typically tiny embryos and cuticle-bearing animals, provide detailed morphological and phylogenetic information on the early evolution of metazoans.