Halkieria Poulsen, 1967

Wrona, Ryszard, 2004, Cambrian microfossils from glacial erratics of King George Island, Antarctica, Acta Palaeontologica Polonica 49 (1), pp. 13-56 : 28

Genus Halkieria Poulsen, 1967

Type species: Halkieria obliqua Poulsen, 1967 .

Remarks.—This genus was established on the basis of isolated sclerites recovered from the Lower Cambrian of Bornholm ( Poulsen 1967), and for a long time was known only from a number of disarticulated sclerites, variable in shape but with at least three main types: palmate, cultrate and spiniform ( Bengtson and Conway Morris 1984). The discovery of articulated halkieriids confirmed the arrangement of a whole scleritome as the dermal armour of a multisclerite animal ( Conway Morris and Peel 1990, 1995). These superbly preserved complete scleritomes in the Lower Cambrian Buen Formation of Peary Land, north Greenland ( Conway Morris and Peel 1995) was also of crucial significance for the reconstruction of many Cambrian coeloscleritophoran animals and the interpretation of their taxonomic relationships. The diagnosis has been modified by Conway Morris and Peel (1995).