An Early Cambrian tunicate from China

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Abstract
Like the Burgess Shales of Canada, the Chengjiang Lagerstätte from the Lower Cambrian of China is renowned for the detailed preservation as fossils of delicate, soft-bodied creatures1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9, providing an insight into the Cambrian explosion. The fossils of possible hemichordate chordates5,6,7 and vertebrates9 have attracted particular attention. Tunicates, or urochordates, comprise the most basal chordate clade10, and details of their evolution could be important in understanding the sequence of character acquisition that led to the emergence of chordates and vertebrates11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18. However, definitive fossils of tunicates from the Cambrian are scarce or debatable4,9,19,20,21,22,23,24. Here we report a probable tunicate Cheungkongella ancestralis from the Chengjiang fauna. It resembles the extant ascidian tunicate genus Styela whose morphology could be useful in understanding the origin of the vertebrates.