ArticleNature2014
A suspension-feeding anomalocarid from the Early Cambrian.
Article in Nature, 2014. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 39 papers.
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Who cites it
39 citing papers in PubMed.
- Adaptive gyration mechanism in fan worm gill filaments for enhanced filter-feeding efficiency.Fundamental research · 2026Article
- Cephalopod body size and macroecology through deep time.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Evolutionary escalation in an exceptionally preserved Cambrian biota from the Grand Canyon (Arizona, USA).Science advances · 2025Article
- Early evolvability in arthropod tagmosis exemplified by a new radiodont from the Burgess Shale.Royal Society open science · 2025Article
- The complex structure of aquatic food webs emerges from a few assembly rules.Nature ecology & evolution · 2025Article
- Organ systems of a Cambrian euarthropod larva.Nature · 2024Article
- The CambrianProceedings. Biological sciences · 2024Article
- Reduction in Marine Primary Productivity in the Early Cambrian Nanhua Basin, South China.ACS omega · 2024Article
- Raptorial appendages of the Cambrian apex predatorProceedings. Biological sciences · 2023Article
- Amplectobeluid RadiodontBiology · 2023Article
- Ordovician opabiniid-like animals and the role of the proboscis in euarthropod head evolution.Nature communications · 2022Article
- New opabiniid diversifies the weirdest wonders of the euarthropod stem group.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2022Article
- Three-dimensional modelling, disparity and ecology of the first Cambrian apex predators.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2021Article
- Vertically migratingProceedings. Biological sciences · 2021Article
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- Disparate compound eyes of Cambrian radiodonts reveal their developmental growth mode and diverse visual ecology.Science advances · 2020Article
- A miniature Ordovician hurdiid from Wales demonstrates the adaptability of Radiodonta.Royal Society open science · 2020Article
- Was the Devonian placodermRoyal Society open science · 2020Article
- Toward an Improved Understanding of the Ingestion and Trophic Transfer of Microplastic Particles: Critical Review and Implications for Future Research.Environmental toxicology and chemistry · 2020Review
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Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Large, actively swimming suspension feeders evolved several times in Earth's history, arising independently from groups as diverse as sharks, rays and stem teleost fishes, and in mysticete whales. However, animals occupying this niche have not been identified from the early Palaeozoic era. Anomalocarids, a group of stem arthropods that were the largest nektonic animals of the Cambrian and Ordovician periods, are generally thought to have been apex predators. Here we describe new material from Tamisiocaris borealis, an anomalocarid from the Early Cambrian (Series 2) Sirius Passet Fauna of North Greenland, and propose that its frontal appendage is specialized for suspension feeding. The appendage bears long, slender and equally spaced ventral spines furnished with dense rows of long and fine auxiliary spines. This suggests that T. borealis was a microphagous suspension feeder, using its appendages for sweep-net capture of food items down to 0.5 mm, within the size range of mesozooplankton such as copepods. Our observations demonstrate that large, nektonic suspension feeders first evolved during the Cambrian explosion, as part of an adaptive radiation of anomalocarids. The presence of nektonic suspension feeders in the Early Cambrian, together with evidence for a diverse pelagic community containing phytoplankton and mesozooplankton, indicate the existence of a complex pelagic ecosystem supported by high primary productivity and nutrient flux. Cambrian pelagic ecosystems seem to have been more modern than previously believed.
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