The early Cambrian calcareous skeletal fossilApistoconchaConway Morris is characterized by its two valves having posterior teeth and internal umbonal cavities. It has been reported from lower Cambrian Botomian-equivalent carbonate rocks in Australia, Mongolia, and Greenland. Here we report a new occurrence ofApistoconchain the lower Cambrian Xinji Formation of Luonan, southeast Shaanxi Province, North China Platform. Based on material (five ventral and four dorsal valves) from the Xinji Formation,Apistoconchacf.aphelesis systematically described and the taxonomic affinity ofApistoconchais discussed. The shell ofApistoconchapossesses an ‘antero-posterior’ plane of bilateral symmetry, and its two valves apparently articulated in life, although the tooth-like structures and pits show little resemblance to the teeth and sockets, respectively, of bivalved shells of rhynchonelliform brachiopods or pelecypods.Apistoconchacannot be assigned to the crown groups of either brachiopods or mollusks, even though functional morphological analysis indicates thatApistoconchamay be a ‘stem-group brachiopod’. UnlikeApistoconcha, the morphologically similarTianzhushanellaLiu is known only from a single type of valve lacking posterior teeth and pits.Tianzhushanellamay represent either a univalved animal or a bivalved animal, the other valve of which has not yet been identified. Even though bothApistoconchaandTianzhushanellamay represent stem-group brachiopods, they probably correspond to different stages of brachiopod evolution. Thus assignment ofApistoconchaandTianzhushanellato the same family (Tianzhushanellidae) may obscure their phylogenic implications.
Morphology and features of Cambrian oncoids and responses to palaeogeography of the North China Platform