Louisella


Louisella is a genus of worm known from the Middle Cambrian Burgess Shale. It was originally described by Charles [Doolittle Walcott|Charles Walcott] in 1911 as a holothurian echinoderm, and represents a senior synonym of Miskoia, which was originally described as an annelid. 48 specimens of Louisella are known from the Greater Phyllopod bed, where they comprise < 0.1% of the community. It has been stated to have palaeoscolecid-like sclerites, though this is not in fact the case.
It's also been interpreted as an annelid and a sipunculan, and a pripaulid, but it is more conservatively considered to represent an ecdysozoan worm; deep ecdysozoan relationships are not yet well resolved, making a more precise affiliation challenging.