Ctenophora “Comb Jelly”

• Comb jellies (Phylum Ctenophora) are soft-bodied marine organisms that are rarely found as fossils.

• They are common in our oceans, but are easily overlooked because they are nearly transparent.

• Comb jellies are generally rounded or cylindrical, and living species typically have eight vertical rows of cilia used for swimming.

• They eat small planktonic animals.

• Fossil comb jellies are very rare, and known from only a handful of Cambrian and Devonian localities.

• This unidentified species is from the Burgess Shale of Canada, a famous Cambrian locality.