Leanchoilia
Leanchoilia is a megacheiran marine arthropod known from Cambrian deposits of the Burgess Shale in Canada and the Chengjiang biota of China.

Haug et al. · CC BY-SA 4.0 · via Wikipedia/Commons. May be a photograph of a specimen, or an artist’s reconstruction — an interpretation of a skeleton, since colour and soft tissue are almost never preserved.
On record
Recorded, not inferred- Sits inside
- LeanchoiliidaePBDB
- Diet
- carnivorePBDB
- Life habit
- low-level epifaunalPBDB
- Motility
- facultatively mobilePBDB
- Vision
- well-developedPBDB
Time the record covers
At least 11 million years on record.
The record covers at least 516 Mya to 504.5 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 521 Mya to 497 Mya.
65 occurrences of Leanchoilia on record, most of them in the Cambrian. Bar height is expected occurrences, not a count: each fossil is spread across the span it is dated to, so a tall narrow bar means tight dating and a low wide one means loose.
When
65 occurrences- Cambrian100%
These are dates about fossils, not the animal: the record can only begin after it arose and end before it died out, so either end may reach further. Shares are expected occurrences: a fossil dated to a span is counted partly in each period it straddles. More on what this infers.
Found in
9 formations
- Yuanshan Formation19
- Burgess Shale Formation · Chancellor Group17
- Yu'anshan Formation13
- Qiongzhusi Formation9
- Marjum Formation2
- Wheeler Shale Formation2
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The named rock units Leanchoilia has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed.
Leanchoilia and its relatives
CambrianWhere Leanchoilia and its relatives were recorded in the Cambrian.
Found in the same rock
543 taxa- Misszhouia longicaudata30 sites
- Naraoia spinosa26 sites
- Hazelia24 sites
- Heliomedusa orienta22 sites
- Kunmingella douvillei22 sites
- Mafangscolex sinensis22 sites
- Isoxys auritus20 sites
- Arthropoda18 sites
- Cricocosmia jinningensis17 sites
- Paraleptomitella dictyodroma17 sites
- Branchiocaris yunnanensis16 sites
- Eoredlichia intermediata16 sites
- Lingulella16 sites
- Canadaspis perfecta15 sites
- Laggania15 sites
- Selkirkia columbia15 sites
- Wiwaxia corrugata15 sites
- Acrothyra14 sites
- Chancelloria eros14 sites
- Diraphora14 sites
- Ehmaniella burgessensis14 sites
- Haplophrentis carinatus14 sites
- Hurdia14 sites
- Liangshanella14 sites
The Paleobiology Database records 57 sites for Leanchoilia, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too. The 24 sharing the most are listed.
This is not a list of everything alive at the time. It is only what has come out of the same ground as this animal and been written down.
Entered from
15 references- Paleoecology of the Greater Phyllopod Bed community, Burgess Shale15
- Diversity and species abundance patterns of the early Cambrian (Series 2, Stage 3) Chengjiang Biota from China10
- Taphonomy and Palaeoecology of the Early Cambrian Chengjiang Biota from Eastern Yunnan, China9
- Arthropods of the Lower Cambrian Chengjiang fauna, southwest China9
- Lower Cambrian Burgess Shale-type fossil associations of South China5
- Spatial variation in the diversity and composition of the Lower Cambrian (Series 2, Stage 3) Chengjiang Biota, Southwest China3
- Community palaeoecology of the early Cambrian Maotianshan Shale biota: Ecological dominance of priapulid worms3
- The diverse radiodont fauna from the Marjum Formation of Utah, USA (Cambrian: Drumian)2
- Middle Cambrian arthropods from Utah2
- Early Cambrian Chengjiang fauna in eastern Yunnan, CHina2
- New exceptionally preserved panarthropods from the Drumian Wheeler Konservat-Lagerstätte of the House Range of Utah1
- Paleocommunity analysis of the Burgess Shale Tulip Beds, Mount Stephen, British Columbia: Comparison with the Walcott Quarry and implications for community variation in the Burgess Shale1
Each of the 65 occurrences read was entered from one of these publications, ordered by how many each accounts for. This is not a search for papers mentioning the name. 3 further references are not listed. Entries link to doi.org where the Paleobiology Database holds an identifier, and to its own record where it does not. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.
Media and terms
Media content1
Picture of Leanchoilia
- Source
- Wikipedia/Commons
- Credit
- Haug et al.
- Licence
- CC BY-SA 4.0
- Commercial use
- the licence allows it
No 3D scan of Leanchoilia was found in Sketchfab.
Smithsonian Open Access and MorphoSource were not reached for this taxon, so this list is what the others held rather than everything there is.
The description on this site
- Source
- Wikipedia, “Leanchoilia”
- Licence
- CC BY-SA 4.0
This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.
Keep going
What may have been alongside itLeanchoiliidae through timeFormations of the CambrianThe world it lived on
Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Walcott 1912