Evidence for Monophyly and Arthropod Affinity of Cambrian Giant Predators

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Abstract
The Chinese Early Cambrian Chengjiang fauna includes three different anomalocaridids, a globally spread, extinct marine group including the largest known Cambrian animals. Anomalocaridids were active predators, and their presence implies that a complex ecosystem appeared abruptly in the earliest Phanerozoic. Complete specimens display several sets of characters shared only with some other exclusively Cambrian forms. This evidence indicates that anomalocaridids, Opabinia , and Kerygmachela form a monophyletic clade. Certain features indicate arthropod affinities of the clade, and for this group an unnamed (sub)phylum-level taxon within an arthropod (super)phylum is proposed.