Pirania

{{Short description|Extinct genus of sponges}} {{Distinguish|text = Piranha}} {{Automatic taxobox | fossil_range = {{Geological range|Burgess Shale|Middle Ordovician}}<ref name="Botting2007">{{cite journal|last=Botting|first=J. P.|year=2007|title='Cambrian' demosponges in the Ordovician of Morocco: insights into the early evolutionary history of sponges|journal=Geobios|volume=40|issue=6|pages=737–748|doi=10.1016/j.geobios.2007.02.006|bibcode=2007Geobi..40..737B }}</ref> | taxon = Pirania | image = Pirania muricata Smithsonian miscellaneous collections (1924).jpg | image_caption = Fossil specimen | image2 = Diorama of the Burgess Shale Biota (Middle Cambrian) - Pirania sponges.jpg | image2_caption = Restoration model | authority = Walcott, 1920 | type_species = ''Pirania muricata'' | type_species_authority = Walcott, 1920 | subdivision = {{Species list | Pirania auraenum | Botting, 2007<ref name="Botting2007"/> | Pirania llanfawrensis | Botting, 2004<ref>{{cite journal|last=Botting|first=J. P.|year=2004|title=An exceptional Caradoc sponge fauna from the Llanfawr Quarries, Central Wales and phylogenetic implications|journal=Journal of Systematic Palaeontology|volume=2|issue=1|pages=31–63|doi=10.1017/S147720190300110X|bibcode=2004JSPal...2...31B |s2cid=83477858 }}</ref> | Pirania muricata | Walcott, 1920 }} }}

'''''Pirania''''' is an extinct genus of sea sponge known from the Middle Cambrian Burgess Shale and the Ordovician Fezouata formation.<ref name=DeRoy2010>{{Cite journal| doi = 10.1038/nature09038| title = Ordovician faunas of Burgess Shale type| year = 2010| last1 = Van Roy | first1 = P.| last2 = Orr | first2 = P. J.| last3 = Botting | first3 = J. P.| last4 = Muir | first4 = L. A.| last5 = Vinther | first5 = J.| last6 = Lefebvre | first6 = B.| last7 = Hariri | first7 = K. E.| last8 = Briggs | first8 = D. E. G.| journal = Nature| volume = 465| pages = 215–8| pmid = 20463737| issue = 7295|bibcode = 2010Natur.465..215V | s2cid = 4313285}}</ref> It is named after Mount St. Piran, a mountain situated in the Bow River Valley in Banff National Park, Alberta. It was first described in 1920 by Charles Doolittle Walcott.<ref name="Walcott1920MiddleCambrianSpongiae">{{cite journal | last1 = Walcott | first1 = C. D. | year = 1920 | title = Cambrian geology and paleontology IV:6—Middle Cambrian Spongiae | url = https://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/29838882 | journal = Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections | volume = 67 | pages = 261–364 }}</ref> 198 specimens of ''Pirania'' are known from the Greater Phyllopod bed, where they comprise 0.38% of the community.<ref name=Caron2006>{{cite journal|last1=Caron |first1=Jean-Bernard|last2=Jackson |first2=Donald A.|title=Taphonomy of the Greater Phyllopod Bed community, Burgess Shale|journal=PALAIOS |volume=21 |issue=5 |pages=451–65|date=October 2006|doi=10.2110/palo.2003.P05-070R|jstor=20173022|bibcode=2006Palai..21..451C |s2cid=53646959 }}</ref>

== References == {{Reflist}}

== External links == * {{Cite web|date=2011|title=''Pirania muricata''|work=Burgess Shale Fossil Gallery|publisher=Virtual Museum of Canada|url=http://burgess-shale.rom.on.ca/en/fossil-gallery/view-species.php?id=102|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201112025257/http://burgess-shale.rom.on.ca/en/fossil-gallery/view-species.php?id=102|archive-date=2020-11-12|url-status=dead|access-date=2017-08-09}}

Category:Protomonaxonida Category:Burgess Shale sponges Category:Prehistoric sponge genera Category:Cambrian first appearances Category:Middle Ordovician extinctions Category:Taxa named by Charles Doolittle Walcott Category:Fossil taxa described in 1920 Category:Cambrian genus extinctions Category:Paleozoic sponges