Metaspriggina

Metaspriggina is a genus of chordate initially known from two specimens in the Middle Cambrian Burgess Shale and 44 specimens found in 2012 at the Marble Canyon bed in Kootenay National Park.

Whilst named after the Ediacaran organism Spriggina, later work has shown the two to be unrelated. Metaspriggina is considered to represent a primitive chordate, possibly transitional between cephalochordates and the earliest vertebrates. It lacked fins and had a poorly developed cranium, but did possess two well-developed upward-facing eyes with nostrils behind them.