What is Hallucigenia?
Q: What is Hallucigenia?
A: Hallucigenia is an extinct genus of animal that was found as fossils in the Middle Cambrian Burgess Shale formation of British Columbia, Canada.
Q: Where else has Hallucigenia been found?
A: Another species of Hallucigenia has been found in the Lower Cambrian Maotianshan shale of China.
Q: What did Stephen Jay Gould think about Hallucigenia?
A: Stephen Jay Gould believed that Hallucigenia was unrelated to any living species.
Q: What do most palaeontologists now believe Hallucigenia was?
A: Most palaeontologists now believe that Hallucigenia was a velvet worm, a relative of modern arthropods.
Q: How does Hallucigenia differ from Aysheaia?
A: Unlike its contemporary Aysheaia, Hallucigenia's elongated and clawed legs bear little resemblance to the paired annulated legs of the Onychophora.
Q: What is unknown about Hallucigenia?
A: It is unknown what the spines on Hallucigenia were made of or how much protection they offered. It is also unknown why 30 or more specimens, each thought to have seven pairs of rather long, flexible legs, do not show even one example of paired legs.
Q: Where can you see a picture of Hallucigenia?
A: A picture of a reconstruction of Hallucigenia as well as a photograph of an actual fossil can be seen on the Geological Survey of Canada's website.
