[1] Naliana probably represents one of the earliest evidence for a macrophagous predator within the fossil record, and, because of how the structure of food webs from the Cambrian were very poorly understood with most reconstructions of them being based upon the feeding interactions between Animal species or upon the gut-content of extremely well-preserved fossils,[1] provides important insights and evidence for how complex the nature of early Cambrian food chains actually were.
From the fossil specimens which were described alongside the species and genus, N. elegans had a slender, elongate body that had two ends with one of them ending with a clearly defined circular mouth and oral disc with a single whorl of eight unbranched, prehensile tentacles that, in one fossil, shows the tentacles surrounded a Lingulid Brachiopod- which suggests that a predatory lifestyle for N. elegans was present when it was alive.
[1] The main column of the body below the mouth exhibits multiple closely spaced longitudinal grooves which can be evidence for traces left by gastric mesenteries on the cylindrical trunk.
[1] The Paratype of Nailiana elegans (ELEL-SJ080824-2) exhibits a central circular protuberance that most likely was perforated by a mouth opening bordered by a peripheral disc which is surrounded by eight unbranching tentacles that only form one whorl.
The middle portion of the column shows evidence for flexibility in real life by preserving traces of smooth bending.