Editing Opabinia (section)

== History of discovery ==

In 1911, [[Charles Doolittle Walcott]] found in the [[Burgess Shale]] nine almost complete fossils of ''Opabinia regalis'' and a few of what he classified as ''Opabinia ? media'', and published a description of all of these in 1912.<ref name=":4">WALCOTT, C. D. 1912. [https://repository.si.edu/bitstream/handle/10088/23430/SMC_57_Walcott_1910_6_145-245.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y Middle Cambrian Branchiopoda, Malacostraca, Trilobita and Merostomata]. Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections, 57: 145-228.</ref> The generic name is derived from [[Mount Hungabee#Gallery|Opabin pass]] between [[Mount Hungabee]] and [[Mount Biddle]], southeast of [[Lake O'Hara]], British Columbia, [[Canada]].<ref name=":4" /> In 1966–1967, [[Harry B. Whittington]] found another good specimen,<ref>{{cite book
| author=Gould, S. J. | title=Wonderful Life | publisher= Hutchinson Radius
| location=London | year=1990 | isbn=978-0-09-174271-3 | page=77 and p. 189 | author-link= Stephen Jay Gould
}}</ref> and in 1975 he published a detailed description based on very thorough [[dissection]] of some specimens and photographs of these specimens lit from a variety of angles. Whittington's analysis did not cover ''Opabinia ? media''; Walcott's specimens of this species could not be identified in his collection.<ref name="Whittington1975" /> In 1960 Russian [[paleontologist]]s described specimens they found in the [[Norilsk]] region of [[Siberia]] and labelled ''Opabinia norilica'',<ref>Miroshnikov, L. D. and Krawzov, A. G. (1960). Rare paleontological remains and traces of life in late Cambrian deposits of the northwestern Siberian platform. Palaeontology and biostratigraphy of the Soviet Arctic, 3, pp. 28–41.</ref> but these fossils were poorly preserved, and Whittington did not feel they provided enough information to be classified as members of the [[genus]] ''Opabinia''.<ref name="Whittington1975"/>