THE MUTUALISM RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN BRACHIOPODS AND SWIMMING ANIMALS FROM KAILI BIOTA

The Cambrian Kaili Biota from eastern Guizhou, South China encompasses more than 140 genera from 11 metazoan body plans across all kingdom-rank lineages, togethers with the Chengjiang lagerst?tte from Yunnan, China and the Burgess shale from Canada, becoming the most important Burgess Shale-type Lagerst?tte. Brachiopods are especially abundant and diverse in the Kaili Biota (next only to the dominant arthropods), so that they are an important component of the benthic communities in the Cambrian period. The brachiopods comprise 10 genera in total, i.e. Lingulella Salter, 1866, Lingulepis Hall, 1863, Palaeobolus Matthew, 1899, Acrothele Linnarsson, 1876, Linnarssonia Walcott, 1885, Paterina Beecher, 1891, Dictyonina Cooper, 1942, Micromitra Meek, 1873, Kutorgina Billings, 1861, Nisusia Walcott, 1905, Eoconcha Cooper, 1951. Many brachiopod specimens in are association with sponges, algae, echinoderms, eldonioids, hyolithids, wiwaxia, other brachio-pods from Cambrian. The brachiopod fossils of Kaili Biota also association with other taxa. A small number of fossils exhibit interesting ecological information and burial characteristics. For instance, some individual showing coexistent relations of mutualistic symbiosis, mutualistic burial, and fixed base with Echinodermata, Medusiform, Cnidaria and large bivalved ar-thropods. Mutualism relationship between brachiopods (Pararotadiscus guizhouensis) and swimming animals (Canadaspis) are recognized here. The fossil evidences include one Palaeobolus with P. guizhouensis, Acrothele on the outer ring of P. guizhouensis and only one Palaeobolus with Canadaspis. These Mutualism relationship of brachiopods and swimming an-imals provide important insights concerning ecological complexity in the Kaili Biota.

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