Xandarella

Xandarella is an extinct genus of xandarellid artiopodan known from the Cambrian of China, the type species Xandarella spectaculum was described in 1991 from the Cambrian Stage 3 aged Chengjiang Biota in China.^[1] Although an additional species Xandarella mauretanica was described from the Cambrian Stage 5 Tatelt Formation in Morocco in 2017, which preserved only the ventral anatomy,^[2] it is later found that is a species of trilobite Gigoutella instead.^[3] Like other xandarellids, the exoskeleton is unmineralised. The cephalon has pronounced eye slits, presumably derived from ancestral ventral stalked eyes.^[4]

Xandarella Temporal range: Cambrian stage 3 PreꞒ Ꞓ O S D C P T J K Pg N
Fossil of X. spectaculum
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Clade:	†Artiopoda
Subphylum:	†Trilobitomorpha
(unranked):	†Xandarellida
Genus:	†Xandarella Hou et al. 1991
Type species
Xandarella spectaculum Hou et al. 1991

Drawing of Xandarella