A new mongolian species of the lower cambrian genus camenella and the problems of scleritome-based taxonomy of the tommotiidae

The tommotiidCamenella parilobata n. sp. is described on the basis of a collection of mitral and sellate sclerites from the Lower Cambrian Khairkhan »Formation« of western Mongolia. The detailed documentation of co-occurrence of sclerite types is essential for the taxonomic analysis of the problematic Tommotiidae and related groups; most »tommotiid« (sensu lato) taxa are still known only from a few isolated sclerites representing an unknown spectrum of variability. Until a detailed analysis of the scleritome composition and sclerite microstructure in representatives of all genera has been made, any suprageneric classification can only be speculative.