Yohoia

Yohoia is an extinct genus of megacheiran arthropod from the Cambrian period that has been found as fossils in the Burgess Shale formation of British Columbia, Canada.

[1] Fossil specimens of Yohoia range in size from 7 to 23 mm, they have a head shield which is followed by 13 trunk tergites, or plates.

All taxa have a single pair of large pre-oral jointed limbs with branched spiny ends for grasping, impaling, or filtering food items.

(Although biramous limbs have been described in the Devonian radiodont Schinderhannes,[5] this interpretation is highly questioned and it is more likely to be bands of gill lamellae instead.

[6]) Yohoia is assumed to have been a mainly benthic (bottom-dwelling) creature that swam just above the muddy ocean floor, using its appendages to scavenge or capture prey.

Yohoia tenuis has two morphotypes , [ 3 ] a common feature seen in several arthropods of the Burgess Shale