Omnidens Temporal range:
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Size estimation of Omnidens as a gilled lobopodian, with the only evident region (mouthparts) highlighted in dark grey. | |
Scientific classification ![]() | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
(unranked): | Panarthropoda |
Genus: | †Omnidens Hou, Bergström, and Yang, 2006 |
Type species | |
Omnidens amplus Hou, Bergström, and Yang, 2006
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Omnidens amplus, meaning "large all-tooth", is an extinct species of large Cambrian animal known only from a series of large mouth apparatus, originally mistaken as the mouthparts of anomalocaridids.[1] When first named, it was interpreted as a giant priapulid,[1] but is now considered a panarthropod.[2] Its mouth apparatus closely resembles that of the smaller gilled lobopodian Pambdelurion, indicating it is likely to have been a close relative of that species, with which it may be synonymous.[2] With a maximum estimated body length of 1.5 metres (4.9 ft), Omnidens is suggested to have been the largest known free-living Cambrian organism.[2] Omnidens fossils are found in the Maotianshan Shales.[1]