Memoirs of the Association of Australasian Palaeontologists

We describe a new species of Markuelia from the Middle Cambrian of Australia, a taxon based exclusively on embryonic specimens. The two likewise putatively embryonic specimens of the new species named Markuelia lauriei sp. nov. have been discovered amongst material collected in 1986 in an area approximately 160 km south of Mt. Isa, Queensland, Australia. The specimens differ from the previously described species of Markuelia not only in size (they are significantly smaller), but also in the presence of an abaxial row of four soft, slim, elongate, tubulous outgrowths dorsally in the anterior region with more being irregularly distributed all over the dorsal surface. The extremely fine preservation of the new specimens adds significantly to the known morphological variation within the taxon Markuelia.