The genus was described in 1969 by paleontologist Rainer Zangerl, and is known from exceptionally preserved individuals found in the Mazon Creek Lagerstätte of Illinois.

[1] The holotype specimen, FMNH PF 5686, is a juvenile individual which was found in an ironstone concretion in Illinois during the summer of 1967.

Also supporting this notion are fossilized egg cases found in the same localities, though it is unclear whether they belong to this genus.

Adult fossils attributed to B. rayi have also been found in spoil heaps from Five Points coal mines near Conesville, Ohio and Cannelton, Pennsylvania, both of which contain rocks of the Kittaning Formation of the Allegheny Group which were roughly contemporaneous with the Mazon Creek deposits.

It appears to have fed via suction feeding, and used its long snout and needle like spines on its cheek for hunting in murky water.