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Vetulicola |
| Vetulicola Fossil range: Cambrian |
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 various species of Vetulicola
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| Vetulicola cuneata (Hou, 1987) |
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Vetulicola is a genus of small animals of uncertain affinity, known from early-Cambrian fossils known from the Chengjiang biota of China.
Vetulicola cuneata (Hou, 1987) has a body composed of two distinct parts of approximately equal length. The front part is rectangular with a carapace-like structure of four rigid cuticular plates, with a large mouth at the front end. The posterior section is slender, strongly cuticularised and placed dorsally. Paired openings connecting the pharynx to the outside run down the sides. These features are interpreted as possible primitive gill slits. Vetulicola cuneata could be up to 7 cm long. The Vetulicola are thought to have been swimmers that were either filter feeders or detrivores.
Other Vetulicola species described are Vetulicola rectangulata (Luo & Hou, 1999), V. gantoucunensis (Luo et al., 2005) and V. monile (Aldridge, Hou, Siveter, Siberet and Gabbott, 2007).
Vetulicola's taxonomic position is controversial. Vetulicola cuneata was originally assigned to the crustaceans, but the lack of legs, the presence of gill slits, and the four plates in the "carapace" were unlike any known arthropod. Shu et al. placed Vetulicola in the new family Vetulicolidae, order Vetulicolida and phylum Vetulicolia, among the deuterostomes. Shu (2003) later argued that the vetulicolians were an early, specialized side-branch of deuterostomes. Dominguez and Jefferies classify Vetulicola as an urochordate, and probably a stem-group appendicularian. In contrast, Butterfield places Vetulicola among the arthropods.
Vetulicola is a compound Latin word composed of vetuli, meaning "old," or "ancient," and cola, meaning "inhabitant."1
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