Like its relatives Cricocosmia and Palaeoscolex, it is usually preserved as a very thin pink impression on the buff-colored matrix that is characteristic for the Maotianshan shales.

The front of the body consists of a presumably protrusive and retractable elongate pharynx, armed with tooth- or spine-like outgrowths, arranged in rows and circles and which stand alternately between adjacent rings with the mouth at the very tip.

The gut is a simple tube, that often stands out as a darker central canal through the entire length of the body.

[2] Living scalidophorans use their introvert for movement and the pharynx to swallow prey, which is assumed to be true for Maotianshania too.

The life habit of Maotianshania is most likely creeping on the seafloor (epibenthic) or living in the sandy or muddy top layer.