WAmpyx is an Ordovician-Silurian genus of Asaphid trilobites of the family Raphiophoridae. Species of Ampyx are characterized by three extended spines on the head-shield, one spine derived from each free cheek, and one spine emanating from the glabellum. Species include Ampyx linleyensis.
WAphetoceras is a genus of tarphycerid cephalopod within the Estonioceratidae; loosely coiled without an impression along the dorsal margin; early whorls barely reaching, separating then diverging in the final mature whorl; weakly ribbed in some. The cross section of Aphetoceras is higher than wide, making it compressed in form. The dorsum, along the inner curve, is more broadly rounded than the venter which lies along the outer curve. The siphuncle is relatively large, located near but not at the ventral margin; lined with secondary deposits. Chambers are empty.
WAulopora is an extinct genus of tabulate coral characterized by a bifurcated budding pattern and conical corallites. Colonies commonly encrust hard substrates such as rocks, shells and carbonate hardgrounds.
WBathyuriscus is an extinct genus of Cambrian trilobite. It was a nektobenthic predatory carnivore. The genus Bathyuriscus is endemic to the shallow seas that surrounded Laurentia. Its major characteristics are a large forward-reaching glabella, pointed pleurae or pleurae with very short spines, and a medium pygidium with well-impressed furrows. Complete specimens have never reached the size of 7 cm predicted by the largest pygidium found. Bathyuriscus is often found with the free cheeks shed, indicating a moulted exoskeleton. An average specimen will in addition have a furrowed glabella, crescent-shaped eyes, be semi-circular in overall body shape, have 7 to 9 thoracic segments, and a length of about 1.5 inches.
WCalamites is a genus of extinct arborescent (tree-like) horsetails to which the modern horsetails are closely related. Unlike their herbaceous modern cousins, these plants were medium-sized trees, growing to heights of 30-50 meters. They were components of the understories of coal swamps of the Carboniferous Period.
WCassinoceras is a genus of nautiloids belonging to the endocerid family Piloceratidae that comes from the late Early Ordovician of eastern North America and adjacent territories.
WChancelloria is a genus of early animals known from the Middle Cambrian Burgess Shale, the Comley limestone, the Wheeler Shale, the Bright Angel Shale and elsewhere. It is named after Chancellor Peak. It was first described in 1920 by Charles Doolittle Walcott, who regarded them as one of the most primitive groups of sponges. This appears unlikely, and it is currently placed in the enigmatic group Coeloscleritophora. 178 specimens of Chancelloria are known from the Greater Phyllopod bed, where they comprise 0.34% of the community.
WCheiruridae is a family of phacopid trilobites of the suborder Cheirurina. Its members, as with other members of the suborder, had distinctive pygidia modified into finger-like spines. They first appeared in the uppermost Cambrian, and persisted until the end of the Middle Devonian (Givetian). Currently about 657 species assigned to 99 genera are included.
WClimacograptus was a Cambrian genus of graptolite.
WClonograptus is a genus of graptolites. Groups of these animals were connected by stalklike structures to a central region. Species of Clonograptus are zone fossils, that help us estimate a precise age of Ordovician rocks.
WDictyonema is a genus of dendroid graptolites in the order Dendroidea.
WDidymograptus is an extinct genus of graptolites with four rows of cups. They lived during the Middle Ordovician, to Late Ordovician.
WDiplograptus was a Cambrian genus of graptolites.
WDrepanophycus is a genus of extinct plants of the Division Lycopodiophyta of Early to Late Devonian age, found in Eastern Canada and Northeast US, China, Russia, Egypt and various parts of Northern Europe and Britain.
WElrathia is a genus of ptychopariid trilobite species that lived during the Middle Cambrian of Utah, and possibly British Columbia. E. kingii is one of the most common trilobite fossils in the USA locally found in extremely high concentrations within the Wheeler Formation in the U.S. state of Utah. E. kingii has been considered the most recognizable trilobite. Commercial quarries extract E. kingii in prolific numbers, with just one commercial collector estimating 1.5 million specimens extracted in a 20-year career. 1950 specimens of Elrathia are known from the Greater Phyllopod bed, where they comprise 3.7% of the community."...trilobite occupied the exaerobic zone, at the boundary of anoxic and dysoxic bottom waters. E. kingii consistently occur in settings below the oxygen levels required by other contemporaneous epifaunal and infaunal benthic biota and may have derived energy from a food web that existed independently of phototrophic primary productivity. Although other fossil organisms are known to have preferred such environments, E. kingii is the earliest-known inhabitant of them, extending the documented range of the exaerobic ecological strategy into the Cambrian Period."
WEndoceras is an extinct genus of large, straight shelled cephalopods from the Middle and Upper Ordovician that gives its name to the Nautiliod order Endocerida. The cross section in the mature portion is slightly wider than high, but is narrower laterally in the young. Sutures are straight and transverse. Endoceras has a large siphuncle, located close to the ventral margin, composed of concave segments, especially in the young but which may be tubular in the adult stage. Endocones are simple, subcircular in cross section, and penetrated by a narrow tube which may contain diaphragms reminiscent of the Ellesmerocerid ancestor.
WFordilla is an extinct genus of early bivalves, one of two genera in the extinct family Fordillidae. The genus is known solely from Early Cambrian fossils found in North America, Greenland, Europe, the Middle East, and Asia. The genus currently contains three described species, Fordilla germanica, Fordilla sibirica, and the type species Fordilla troyensis.
WGalbagnostus is an extinct genus of agnostid trilobite. It lived during the Lower and Middle Ordovician.
WGeragnostus is a genus of very small agnostid trilobites whose fossils are found Ordovician-aged marine strata from Eurasia, North America and Argentina.
WGoniograptus is an extinct genus of graptolites.
WThe halkieriids are a group of fossil organisms from the Lower to Middle Cambrian. Their eponymous genus is Halkieria, which has been found on almost every continent in Lower to Mid Cambrian deposits, forming a large component of the small shelly fossil assemblages. The best known species is Halkieria evangelista, from the North Greenland Sirius Passet Lagerstätte, in which complete specimens were collected on an expedition in 1989. The fossils were described by Simon Conway Morris and John Peel in a short paper in 1990 in the journal Nature. Later a more thorough description was undertaken in 1995 in the journal Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London and wider evolutionary implications were posed.
WHarpides is an extinct genus of harpetid trilobite of the family Harpididae.
WIllaenus is a genus of trilobites from Russia and Morocco, from the middle Ordovician.
WKootenia is a genus of trilobites of the family Dorypygidae. 118 specimens of Kootenia are known from the Greater Phyllopod bed, where they comprise 0.22% of the community. Its major characteristics are that of the closely related Olenoides, including medium size, a large glabella, and a medium-sized pygidium, but also a lack of the strong interpleural furrows on the pygidium that Olenoides has.
WLeptaena is an extinct genus of mid-sized brachiopod that existes from the Dariwilian epoch to the Emsian epoch, though some specimens have been found in strata as late in age as the Tournasian epoch. Like some other Strophomenids, Lepteana were epifaunal, meaning they lived on top of the seafloor, not buried within it, and were suspension feeders.
WLingulella is a genus of phosphatic-shelled brachiopod. It is known from the Middle Cambrian Burgess Shale (Canada) to the Upper Ordovician Bromide Formation in North America. 346 specimens of Lingulella are known from the Greater Phyllopod bed, where they comprise 0.66% of the community.
WLonchodomas is a genus of trilobites, that lived during the Ordovician. It was eyeless, like all raphiophorids, and had a long straight sword-like frontal spine, that gradually transforms into the relatively long glabella. Both the glabellar spine and the backward directed genal spines are subquadrate in section. Lonchodomas has five thorax segments and the pleural area of the pygidium has two narrow furrows. Lonchodomas occurred in what are today Argentina, Canada (Newfoundland), Estonia, Latvia, Norway, Sweden, the Russian Federation and the United States.
WMicromitra is a genus of brachiopods known from the Middle Cambrian Burgess Shale. 160 specimens of Micromitra are known from the Greater Phyllopod bed, where they comprise 0.3% of the community.
WObolella is a genus of Cambrian brachiopods.
WThe halkieriids are a group of fossil organisms from the Lower to Middle Cambrian. Their eponymous genus is Halkieria, which has been found on almost every continent in Lower to Mid Cambrian deposits, forming a large component of the small shelly fossil assemblages. The best known species is Halkieria evangelista, from the North Greenland Sirius Passet Lagerstätte, in which complete specimens were collected on an expedition in 1989. The fossils were described by Simon Conway Morris and John Peel in a short paper in 1990 in the journal Nature. Later a more thorough description was undertaken in 1995 in the journal Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London and wider evolutionary implications were posed.
WOgygopsis is a genus of trilobite from the Cambrian of Antarctica and North America, specifically the Burgess Shale. It is the most common fossil in the Mt. Stephen fossil beds there, but rare in other Cambrian faunas. Its major characteristics are a prominent glabella with eye ridges, lack of pleural spines, a large spineless pygidium about as long as the thorax or cephalon, and its length: up to 12 cm.
WOlenellus is an extinct genus of redlichiid trilobites, with species of average size. It lived during the Botomian and Toyonian stages (Olenellus-zone), 522 to 510 million years ago, in what is currently North-America, part of the palaeocontinent Laurentia.
WOlenoides was a trilobite from the Cambrian period. Its fossils are found well-preserved in the Burgess Shale in Canada. It grew up to 10 cm long.
WOrygmaspis is a genus of asaphid trilobite with an inverted egg-shaped outline, a wide headshield, small eyes, long genal spines, 12 spined thorax segments and a small, short tailshield, with four pairs of spines. It lived during the Upper Cambrian in what are today Canada and the United States.
WPagetia is a small genus of trilobite, assigned to the family Eodiscidae and which had global distribution during the Middle Cambrian. The genus contains 55 currently recognized species, each with limited spatial and temporal ranges.
WParadoxides is a genus of large to very large trilobite found throughout the world during the Mid-Cambrian period. One record-breaking specimen of Paradoxides davidis, described by John William Salter in 1863, is 37 cm (15 in). The cephalon was semicircular with free cheeks ending in long, narrow, recurved spines. Eyes were crescent shaped providing an almost 360° view, but only in the horizontal plane. Its elongate thorax was composed of 19-21 segments and adorned with longish, recurved pleurall spines. Its pygidium was comparatively small. Paradoxides is a characteristic Middle-Cambrian trilobite of the 'Atlantic' (Avalonian) fauna. Avalonian rocks were deposited near a small continent called Avalonia in the Paleozoic Iapetus Ocean. Avalonian beds are now in a narrow strip along the East Coast of North America, and in Europe.
WParviscopa is a genus of frondose forms characterized in 2008 based on specimens from Newfoundland, Canada. Parviscopa is a member of the Ediacaran biota, and is more specifically part of the Avalon type assemblage, which is from the older part of the Ediacaran and is characterized by deep water deposits.
WPelagiellidae is an extinct family of Paleozoic fossil marine molluscs.
WPeronopsis is a genus of trilobite restricted to the Middle Cambrian. Its remains have been found in Asia, Australia, Europe, and North America.
WPlanolites is an ichnogenus found throughout the Phanerozoic that is made during the feeding process of worm-like animals. The traces are generally small, 1–5 mm (0.039–0.197 in), unlined, and rarely branched, with fill that differs from the host rock.
WPliomeridae is a family of phacopide trilobites, containing the following genera:
WPtychagnostus is a member of the agnostida that lived during the Cambrian period. Ptychagnostidae generally do not exceed one centimetre in length. Their remains are rarely found in empty tubes of the polychaete worm Selkirkia. The genus probably ranged throughout the water column. It has two glabellar lobes, and three pygidial lobes,.
WRafinesquina is an extinct genus of large brachiopod that existed from the Darriwilian to the Ludlow epoch.
WReceptaculites is the name-bearing genus for an extinct group of conspicuous benthic marine genera, the Receptaculitidae, that lived from the Early Ordovician through the Permian period, peaking in the Middle Ordovician. The group's phylogenetic origin has long been obscure, but the current understanding is that the Receptaculitidae were calcareous algae, probably of the Order Dasycladales. Receptaculitids lived in warm, shallow seas and have been described from all continents except Antarctica. In some areas they were important reef-formers, and they also occur as isolated specimens.
WSalterella is an enigmatic Cambrian genus with a small, conical, calcareous shell that appears to be septate, but is rather filled with stratified laminar deposits. The shell contains grains of sediment, which are obtained selectively by a manner also observed in foramanifera. The genus was established by Elkanah Billings in 1861, and was named after the English palaeontologist John William Salter.
WScenella is an extinct genus of fossil invertebrate animal which is generally considered to be a mollusc; at various times it has been suggested that this genus belongs with the gastropods, the monoplacophorans, or the helcionellids, although no firm association with any of these classes has been established. An affinity with the hydrozoa has been considered, although some authors oppose this hypothesis. A gastropod affinity is defended on the basis of six pairs of internal muscle scars, whilst the serially-repeated nature of these scars suggests to other authors a monoplacophoran affinity. However the specimens showing this scarring have not been convincingly shown to belong to the genus Scenella. A similarity to the Ediacaran Ovatoscutum has also been drawn.
WThe extinct Solenoporaceae have traditionally been interpreted as a group of red algae ancestral to the Corallinales.
WSphaerocodium is a fossil that represents the remains of bacteria in the phylum Cyanobacteria, often called blue-green algae.
WSphenopteris is a genus of seed ferns containing the foliage of various extinct plants, ranging from the Devonian to Late Cretaceous.
WTaeniocrada is a genus of extinct plants of Devonian age. It is used as a form genus for fossil plants with leafless flattened stems which divided dichotomously and had prominent midribs regarded as containing vascular tissues. It has been suggested that some species assigned to this genus were aquatic.
WTetragraptus is an extinct genus of graptolites from the Ordovician period.
WTrypanites is a narrow, cylindrical, unbranched boring which is one of the most common trace fossils in hard substrates such as rocks, carbonate hardgrounds and shells. It appears first in the Lower Cambrian, was very prominent in the Ordovician Bioerosion Revolution, and is still commonly formed today. Trypanites is almost always found in calcareous substrates, most likely because the excavating organism used an acid or other chemical agent to dissolve the calcium carbonate. Trypanites is common in the Ordovician and Silurian hardgrounds of Baltica.
WWanneria is an extinct genus from a well-known class of fossil marine arthropods, the trilobites. It lived during the later part of the Botomian stage, which lasted from approximately 524 to 518.5 million years ago. This faunal stage was part of the Cambrian Period. Wanneria walcottana is the only known species in this genus.
WYochelcionella is an extinct genus of basal molluscs which lived during the Tommotian epoch, the first epoch of the Cambrian period. This genus is often reconstructed to resemble snails.