Description

This fossil was described in July 2019 by the research team of the Royal Ontario Museum of Canada. It dates back 520 million years, from the Cambrian and comes from the famous Burgess Shale deposit.

Cambroraster was a large animal (for its time), up to 30 cm long. It was characterized by a significantly enlarged dorsal carapace in the shape of a horseshoe, and presumably fed by sifting the sediment with its well-developed dental plates (oral cone) and its short frontal appendages with hooked spines, although studies suggest that these appendages may have been more useful for collecting particles by filter feeding than for sifting sediment.

It is a basal arthropod and although its appearance resembles that of the horseshoe crab, they are not directly related.
Bibliography:
Moysiuk, J.; Caron, J.-B. (14 de agosto de 2019). «A new hurdiid radiodont from the Burgess Shale evinces the exploitation of Cambrian infaunal food sources» Museum, Royal Ontario. «A voracious Cambrian predator, Cambroraster, is a new species from the Burgess Shale»