Skara hunanensis a new species of Skaracarida (Crustacea) from Upper Cambrian (Furongian) of Hunan, south China

The fossils of Orsten-type preservation are as famous as Chengjiang Fauna in the world, but it was not until 2005 that the Orsten-type fossils represented by Skaracarida and Phosphatocopida were first reported to be found in western Hunan, South China. Here, we report the systematic paleontology of all the exquisitely preserved specimens belonging to Skaracarida. They were found at a same horizon of Upper Cambrian (Furongian) in Wangcun section, western Hunan, south China, assigned to a new species Skara hunanensis herein. Skara hunanensis is characterized by small, soft-integumented, marine forms with slender, annulate body; labrum large and ventrocaudally directed; uniramous antennulae; biramous antennae and mandibulae; maxillas and maxillipeds of the same shape; all postantennular limbs join a short cephalic filter apparatus. The body has two tagmata: a cephalon with five pairs of well developed appendages and a trunk composed of 11 ring-shaped conical segments.