Eldonia and Wiwaxia from the Cambrian of the Barrandian Area (Czech Republic)  

We examined Burgess Shale-type soft-bodied fossils from the Cambrian of the Barrandian area, Czech Republic.  One specimen of Eldonia sp. was discovered in the Paseky Shale (Holsiny-Horice Formation, Pribram-Jince Basin) at Kočka Hill, Brdy mountains.  It is part of a very low diversity Kodymirus assemblage, which is dominated by arthropods.  Among them, only the stem-chelicerate Kodymirus vagans is very abundant (more than one thousand exoskeletal fragments were found). The larger stem-group aglaspidid Kockurus grandis and the tiny, crustacean-like Vladicaris subtilis are comparatively rare (both known from several tens of fragments). The macroscopic alga Marpolia spisa also occurs infrequently (several tens of fragments discovered). Ichnofossil diversity is low, suggesting that the low diversity of the body-fossil assemblage is not a taphonomic artefact.  Most traces were apparently produced by arthropods, and can be attributed to the aforementioned species.

We identified rare specimens of the pterobranch Rhabdotubus robustus from the “Orthisovy lumek” (Orthis Quarry) near Skryje (Tyrovice Member, Buchava Formation in the Skryje-Tyrovice Basin). We defend the interpretation of this organism as a dendroid graptoloid.  Seven isolated Wiwaxia sclerites (six scales and one spine) are preserved on surfaces bearing R. robustus. Although the poor preservation quality prohibited detailed analysis of sclerite morphology, there are no obvious differences from the type species W. corrugata.