#odaraia

Saw this Misumena vatia who caught a fly!

This is not random at all, but super welcome! Thank you for this, Anon!

Before, the best answer we got was an Anamalocarid, but it really shows how much things can be smooshed even in a laggerstaten.

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Odaraia alata, (yet another) strange arthropod of the Burgess Shale.

Unlike many of the 'weird wonders' of the Burgess like Hallucigenia or Opabinia, Odaraia was quickly identified as an arthropod (although its precise position remains unclear) but what sets it apart is its completely unique functional morphology: in addition to a very unusual telson with three flukes (quite reminiscent of the tail of a plane), Odaraia had a bivalved carapace that almost completely enclosed its body (Briggs & Whittington, 1981), like a living burrito with many legs.

Since the legs were unable to reach out beyond the shield, Odaraia must have spent its life swimming (possibly on its back like a fairy shrimp, based on its center of gravity), using its legs to create currents to guide food particles into the shield space and towards the mouth; the tail flukes likely assisted in stabilizing and steering. The whole animal was about 15 cm long (Briggs & Whittington, 1981).

In the background are Pirania muricata sponges, contemporary to Odaraia and also found in the Burgess Shale (Walcott, 1924).

References and notes about the reconstruction:

Odaraia alata from the Middle Cambrian (~505 mya) Burgess Shale of the Canadian Rockies. Originally considered to be a crustacean, more recently it's been reclassified as a stem-arthropod.

Growing up to 15cm in length (5.9"), it had a pair of large eyes on short stalks, and may have had two or three smaller median eyes in between. A tube-like carapace covered most of its body, and the tail had three flukes for stabilization while swimming.