CAMBRIAN SUBMARINES: OPABINIA REGALIS Meet one of the most wonderfully peculiar animals to ever grace our ancient seas. This five-eyed marvel swam through the Cambrian oceans some 508 million years ago, its soft body drifting above the seafloor of what is now British Columbia—preserved in exquisite detail within the famed Burgess Shale of Yoho National Park. At first glance, _Opabinia regalis_ feels almost mischievous in its design. I think of them as Cambrian submarines. Five stalked eyes sit atop its head like a crown of periscopes, scanning a world teeming with early life. Along its sides, a series of delicate lobes ripple in coordinated waves, propelling it forward with gentle, undulating grace. But it is the feeding apparatus that truly steals the show—a long, flexible proboscis ending in a tiny claw, perfectly suited for plucking soft prey from the seafloor and delivering it to its backward-facing mouth tucked beneath the head. Yes—five eyes. And a claw-tipped trunk. Nature was experimenting, and _Opabinia_ was one of her boldest sketches. When Charles Doolittle Walcott first described this curious creature in 1912, it puzzled generations of paleontologists. At the time, he believed it was an anostracan branchiopod. I don't see the resemblance but I wasn't looking at a fossil mystery with his lived experience of the time. Walcott named the species _Opabinia_ after Opabin Peak in the Canadian Rockies. While his initial classification as a crustacean was later debated and revised by researchers like Harry Whittington in the 1970s—who identified it as a far more enigmatic "weird wonder"—Walcott's 1912 publication remains the initial scientific description of this marvelous fancy of nature. For decades, its place on the tree of life remained uncertain, its anatomy so unlike anything alive today that it seemed almost alien. Thanks to the careful work of Harry Whittington and colleagues—that _Opabinia_ was understood as part of an early branch of arthropod evolution, a relative—albeit a very strange one—of the lineage that would eventually give rise to insects, crustaceans and spiders. Soft-bodied and delicate, _Opabinia_ would never have fossilized under ordinary circumstances. It is only through the extraordinary preservation of the Burgess Shale—where rapid burial in fine mud and low-oxygen conditions halted decay—that we are gifted this glimpse into deep time’s more experimental chapters. In _Opabinia_ , we see evolution not as a straight line, but as a riot of possibilities—forms tried, tested, and sometimes abandoned with countless strange and beautiful designs flickering briefly before fading into the stone. I am truly thrilled that we got a chance to see this one as so many never had the chance to fossilize and we'll never get to know their quirky selves.

CAMBRIAN SUBMARINES: OPABINIA REGALIS

#Burgess #cambrian #charles #creatures #doolittle #eyes #fossils #funny #opabinia #Shale #stalk

Origin | Interest | Match

proboscis (like an elephant’s trunk). Even more astounding are the five eyes on stalks!

#linocut #printmaking #opabinia #sciart #paleontology

a pile of blue opabinia stickers with a shiny holo foil border

a closeup of a sticker, being held

Also, reminder that Opabinia stickers are going out to patrons this month. Sign up any time in March to get one by mail!
patreon.com/dobescrusher
#stickerclub #stickers #art #drawing #paleoart #opabinia

Short round office table (light brown) with 2 plush toys creatures corresponding to old prehistoric creatures. On the left is an opabina regalis that looks like a dark blue shrimp-like creature with 5 eyes and a trunk which ends with a mouth. On the right is an Hallucigenia which loosely looks like a 14 legged worm with long spikes and a cute dinosaur-like head. Both creatures are difficult to describe as they are cute versions of ancient cambrian fossils from 500 million years ago.

I was lucky for Christmas and I got a new fossil plush to re-enact the #cambrian explosion in my office! So, I now have an #opabinia (left) next to my #hallucigenia (right) and I can slowly recreate the Burgess shale.

A digital painting of a red, green, and white Mieridduryn. Text on the image: “Merry (dduryn) Christmas”

Merry Mieridduryn!
#paleoart #opabinia

A delightful piece I found at the other place by artist @kuwaganon26.bsky.social "CAMBRIAN MONSTER'S TEA PARTY" #cambrian #anomalocaris #opabinia

Opabinia moment
#opabiniaregalis #opabinia #cambrian

Im thinking about getting into sticker making
#stickers #art #digitalart #anomalocaris #opabinia #cambriancuties

Drawing Paleozoic animals until September 30th or I miss a day

Day 19 to 20: Opabinia regalis and Wiwaxia corrugata

Cambrian guys

#drawing #paleoart #Opabinia #Wiwaxia

Original post on mastodon.social

Opabinia (Paleontologie 🦕)

Opabinia byl rod vyhynulých kambrijských členovců s pěti očima a klepetovitým chobotem. Je znám jediný druh – Opabinia regalis. Její fosilie byly nalezeny v burgesských břidlicích v Britské Kolumbii v Kanadě. Žila v kambrijském období paleozoické éry v období před 500 […]

Two recipes, one grocery list 🛒✨ No more double-checking ingredients

Join the beta testing: opabinia.com.au

#Opabinia #appdevelopment
#betatesting #recipes
#grocerylist #melbournefood

Cambrian Crew! 🐛🦐🪼🪸🌊

#art #paleoart #cambrianexplosion #anomalocaris #opabinia #hallucigenia #marrella #illustration

The Original Gilbert Baker's Pride Flag + #Opabinia sketch

Personal use with credit is welcome. ^^

#paleoart #pride #fossils

Working on getting caught up on my #Late additions to #AugArthroAwe ! 😅 #3in1 #Triptych #ArtPrompt #Arthropod #SciArt #Bugs #InverteFest
#StainedGlass
#JapaneseRhinocerousBeetle
#Opabinia
#TrispineHorseshoeCrab

An ink drawing of a prehistoric arthropod, looking like a shrimp with a tube mouth, saying hiya!

#AugArthroAwe #opabinia #inkart
Second drawing for this month's arthropod challenge, Opabinia!
Funny looking lil guy

#horrorai #weird #aiimages #iconoplasm #AIArt #tongue #opabinia #cyclops #usa #AIArtist #AIArtwork #GenerativeArt #DigitalArt #AIArtGallery #AIGeneratedArt #AIArtCommunity #monster #horrorart #digitalart #fantasyai #synthart #lovecraft

The Monsters Are Hungry and Stupid

One time I was at school and the teacher asked what I was reading and I didn’t have the courage to say “Ordovician Opabiniidae-like animals and the role of the proboscis is euarthropod head evolution” #opabinia #paleontology

Drawing of a mermaid based on Opabinia regalis. She has a humanoid head, neck, torso and humanoid arms, but she also has five stalked eyes on her face, as well as a proboscis with a claw where her mouth would usually be. her tail is sectioned with flaps on the side of each section.

#mermay day 28: cambrian. My girl Opabinia regalis 🥰 #pencildrawing #pencilart #traditionaldrawing #traditionalart #drawing #myart #artistsonbluesky #artsky #art #mermay2025 #mermaid #merpeople #merfolk #opabiniaregalis #opabinia #cambrian #cambrianperiod

The Simpsons scene where Homer arrives home, "dirty as a Frenchman", to find Moe already gearing up to make his move on Marge. But it's been edited so that Homer has facial tentacle-claw thingies like the Cambrian marine arthropod and apex predator anomalocaris, and Moe has been endowed with five eyes and a trunk-like appendage below them, much like the iconic features of opabinia, a much smaller, soft-bodied Cambrian marine arthropod.

Anhomerlocaris spots its prey, Moepabinia.

Not sure if this counts as paleoart.
#anomalocaris #opabinia #coproliteposting #simpsons

A stylized sketch drawing of an Opabinia (Stem arthropod from the Cambrian) swooping towards the viewer.

Opabinia is my favorite Cambrian period animal. The real animal was probably nowhere near this bodily flexible, but I wanted an interested pose to draw.

…now to suffer figuring out those overlapping lobes would look.

#art #paleoart #paleontology #opabinia #cambrian #sketchbook

A sketch of the Cambrian Opabiniid, Utaurora.

A sketch of the Cambrian Radiodont, Lyrarapax.

I’m a sucker for Dinocardids.

#utaurora #opabinia #lyrarapax #cambrian #paleoart #sciart #art

A pencil drawing of Opabinia

Opabinia.

#opabinia #paleoart #cambrian #sciart #art #sketch

#coproliteposting #specevo #opabinia #anomalocaris #mammoth

#coproliteposting #graptoliteposting #mactonight #cambrian #opabinia #anomalocaris #graptolite

Agonzalocaris and Opcamillia
#paleoart #muppets #cambrian #gonzo #camilla #anomalocaris #opabinia #snibetysnab

I drew an Opabinia, it's a creature from the Cambrian explosion. Inspired from the amazing history videos that Lindsay Nikole makes
#digitalart #opabinia #prehistoricart #paleoart

Cambrian couple #cambrianperiod #cambrian #anomalocaris #art #opabinia #cute

Opabinia, a marine Cambrian animal with a strange jawed-trunk and 5 stalked eyes is coming back to bring joy to all.

I HAVE GOOD NEWS!
(I have zero clue who's image this was originally)
#paleontology #paleomeme #cambrian #opabinia #news #prehistoric #prehistory

STOP! This is an Opabinia appreciation post. Admire this charmingly strange Cambrian creature.

#paleosky #opabinia #cambrian
#prehistoric

my open plea to Mr. John Webfishing Developer:

PLEASE ADD OPABINIA..... I LOVE HIM YOUR HONOR 🥺👉👈 (also please add trilobite too, my beloved) #webfishing #opabinia