Margaretia

Margaretia
Temporal range:
Reconstruction of M. dorus as organic tube that is associated with Oesia disjuncta
Scientific classification
Domain: Incertae sedis
Genus: Margaretia
Walcott, 1931
Species:
M. dorus
Binomial name
Margaretia dorus
Walcott, 1931

Margaretia is a frondose organism known from the middle Cambrian Burgess shale and the Kinzers Formation of Pennsylvania. Its fronds reached about 10 cm in length and are peppered with a range of length-parallel oval holes. It was originally interpreted as an alcyonarian coral. It was later reclassified as a green alga closely resembling modern Caulerpa by D.F. Satterthwait in her Ph.D. thesis in 1976, a finding supported by Conway Morris and Robison in 1988. More recently, it has been treated as an organic tube, that is used as nest of hemichordate Oesia.