Nailiana elegans

Nailiana elegans is a species of stem-cnidarian from the Chengjiang biota of China that has a polypoidal body plan. It is the only species in the genus Nailiana. The species was first described in 2021 from multiple solitary specimens from China, with some being preserved with Cambrian lingulids that would suggest a lifestyle as a macrophagous predator from the Cambrian. Naliana probably represents one of the earliest evidence for a macrophagous predator within the fossil record, and, because of how the structure of food webs from the Cambrian were very poorly understood with most reconstructions of them being based upon the feeding interactions between Animal species or upon the gut-content of extremely well-preserved fossils, provides important insights and evidence for how complex the nature of early Cambrian food chains actually were.

No picture of Nailiana elegans was found. Wikipedia, Wikidata and iDigBio were searched and had none. Smithsonian Open Access did not answer, so this is what the others held rather than everything there is. GBIF was asked, and what came back is not recorded: nothing, or a picture this site could not tie to Nailiana elegans, or no answer at all. This entry cannot say which.

On record

Recorded, not inferred
Sits inside
NailianaPBDB
Vision
blindPBDB, for Scyphozoa

Time the record covers

At most 6.5 million years on record.

The one occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 521 Mya and 514.5 Mya, which is a dating window rather than a span.

Cambrian — about 1 of 1 occurrenceCambrian521–521 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences521–521 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences521–520 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences520–520 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences520–520 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences520–520 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences520–519 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences519–519 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences519–519 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences519–519 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences519–518 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences518–518 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences518–518 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences518–518 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences518–517 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences517–517 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences517–517 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences517–517 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences517–516 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences516–516 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences516–516 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences516–516 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences516–515 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences515–515 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences515–515 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences515–515 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences521.5 Mya514 Mya

1 occurrence of Nailiana elegans 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

1 occurrences

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

1 formation

Heilinpu — 24.74°N, 102.57°E

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The named rock units Nailiana elegans has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed.

Nailiana elegans and its relatives

Cambrian

Where Nailiana elegans and its relatives were recorded in the Cambrian.

Found in the same rock

No other named taxon is catalogued from that site.

The Paleobiology Database records 1 site for Nailiana elegans, and this reads all of them.

Entered from

1 reference

Each of the 1 occurrence 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. Each entry links to doi.org. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content0

No picture of Nailiana elegans was found. Wikipedia, Wikidata and iDigBio were searched and had none.

Smithsonian Open Access did not answer, so this is what the others held rather than everything there is.

GBIF was asked, and what came back is not recorded: nothing, or a picture this site could not tie to Nailiana elegans, or no answer at all. This entry cannot say which.

No 3D scan of Nailiana elegans was found in MorphoSource and Sketchfab.

Smithsonian Open Access was not reached for this taxon, so this list is what the others held rather than everything there is.

The description on this site

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 itNailiana through timeFormations of the CambrianThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Ou et al. 2022