| Vetulicola Temporal range: Cambrian Stage 3 PreꞒ Ꞓ O S D C P T J K Pg N | |
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| Fossil of Vetulicola cuneata | |
Scientific classification 
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| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Clade?: | †Vetulicolia |
| Class: | †Vetulicolida |
| Order: | †Vetulicolata |
| Family: | †Vetulicolidae |
| Genus: | †Vetulicola Hou, 1987 |
| Type species | |
| Vetulicola cuneata Hou, 1987 | |
| Species | |
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Vetulicola is an extinct genus of marine animal discovered from the Cambrian of China. It is the eponymous member of the enigmatic phylum Vetulicolia, which is of uncertain affinities but may belong to the deuterostomes. The name was derived from Vetulicola cuneata, the first species described by Hou Xian-guang in 1987 from the Lower Cambrian Chiungchussu Formation in Chengjiang, China.
Etymology
Vetulicola is a compound Latin word composed of vetuli, meaning "old," or "ancient," and cola, meaning "inhabitant."
Description
pharynx and alimentary canal: dashed line; dorsal and ventral food grooves: dotted line; gill slits: pink
The type species, Vetulicola cuneata, as originally described by Hou Xian-guang in 1987, has a body plan similar to those of arthropods and composed of two distinct parts of approximately equal length. The anterior part is rectangular with a carapace-like structure of four rigid cuticular plates, with a large mouth at the front end. The posterior section is slender, strongly cuticularised and placed dorsally. Paired openings connecting the pharynx to the outside run down the sides. These features are interpreted as possible primitive gill slits. Vetulicola cuneata could be up to 9 cm long. The Vetulicola are thought to have been swimmers that were possible filter feeders.
Other Vetulicola species described are Vetulicola rectangulata (Luo and Hu, 1999), V. gantoucunensis (Luo et al., 2005), V. monile (Aldridge et al., 2007), and V. longbaoshanensis (Yang et al., 2010). The mouth openings of all the other species are smaller, and do not protrude as in V. cuneata. All other species, with the stark exception of V. gantoucunensis, are smaller than the type species.
Taxonomy
Vetulicola is the namesake genus of the family Vetulicolidae, which also includes Ooedigera and Beidazoon.
The family has been recovered as a monophyletic clade even in a 2024 analysis that yielded a paraphyletic Vetulicolia and Vetulicolida, although that same analysis found that the sole species of Beidazoon, B. venustrum, is more closely related to V. monile than V. monile is to other members of Vetulicola:
| Vetulicolidae† |
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An earlier study in 2014 treated Vetulicola as monophyletic, but was unable to resolve any relationships among vetulicolians as a group:
| Vetulicolia† |
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Paleobiology
Vetulicola was the host of the symbiotic organism Vermilituus gregarius, which appears to have lived inside Vetulicola's anterior body. Only around 2% of Vetulicola individuals had Vermilituus infestations, but Vermilituus could be very numerous: one Vetulicola specimen had 88 individuals of Vermilituus infesting it. Such large numbers of symbiotic organisms were probably harmful to the host Vetulicola.
References
- Briggs, Derek E. G.; Fortey, Richard A. (2005). "Wonderful strife: systematics, stem groups, and the phylogenetic signal of the Cambrian radiation". Paleobiology. 31 (2_Suppl): 94–112. doi:10.1666/0094-8373(2005)031[0094:WSSSGA]2.0.CO;2. ISSN 0094-8373. S2CID 44066226.
- ^ Lacalli, Thurston C. (2002). "Vetulicolians—are they deuterostomes? chordates?". BioEssays. 24 (3): 208–211. doi:10.1002/bies.10064. PMID 11891757.
- Hou, Xian-guang (1987). "Early Cambrian large bivalved arthropods from Chengjiang, Eastern Yunnan". Acta Palaeontologica Sinica. 26 (3): 272–285 – via China Knowledge Network.
- Shu, D. G.; Conway Morris, S.; Han, J.; Chen, L.; Zhang, X. L.; Zhang, Z. F.; Liu, H. Q.; Li, Y.; Liu, J. N. (2001-11-22). "Primitive deuterostomes from the Chengjiang Lagerstätte (Lower Cambrian, China)". Nature. 414 (6862): 419–424. Bibcode:2001Natur.414..419S. doi:10.1038/35106514. ISSN 0028-0836. PMID 11719797. S2CID 4345484.
- ^ Li, Yujing; Williams, Mark; Harvey, Thomas H. P.; Wei, Fan; Zhao, Yang; Guo, Jin; Gabbott, Sarah; Fletcher, Tom; Hou, Xianguang; Cong, Peiyun (2020-09-18). "Symbiotic fouling of Vetulicola, an early Cambrian nektonic animal". Communications Biology. 3 (1): 517. doi:10.1038/s42003-020-01244-1. PMC 7501249. PMID 32948820.
- Li, Yujing; Williams, Mark; Gabbott, Sarah E.; Chen, Ailen; Cong, Peiyun; Hou, Xianguang (2018). "The enigmatic metazoan Yuyuanozoon magnificissimi from the early Cambrian Chengjiang Biota, Yunnan Province, South China". Journal of Paleontology. 92 (6): 1081–1091. doi:10.1017/jpa.2018.18.
- Mussini, G.; Smith, M. P.; Vinther, J.; Rahman, I. A.; Murdock, D. J. E.; Harper, D. A. T.; Dunn, F. S. (2024). "A new interpretation of Pikaia reveals the origins of the chordate body plan". Current Biology. 34 (13): 2980–2989.e2. doi:10.1016/j.cub.2024.05.026. PMID 38866005.
- García-Bellido, Diego C.; Lee, Michael S. Y.; Edgecombe, Gregory D.; Jago, James B.; Gehling, James G.; Paterson, John R. (2014). "A new vetulicolian from Australia and its bearing on the chordate affinities of an enigmatic Cambrian group". BMC Evolutionary Biology. 14: 214. doi:10.1186/s12862-014-0214-z. PMC 4203957. PMID 25273382.
External links
- Biota of the Maotianshan Shale, Chengjiang China - URL retrieved June 22, 2006
- Palaeos' Page on Vetulicolia
- Photos of Vetulicola cuneata fossils - URL retrieved June 22, 2006
- Photos of Vetulicola rectangulata fossils - Accessed January 3, 2008
- Photos of Vetulicola gangtoucunensis fossils - Accessed January 3, 2008
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| Taxon identifiers | |
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| Vetulicola | |