Editing Opabinia (section)

== Lifestyle ==
{{multiple image
| total_width = 450px
| image1 = Opabinia v2.png
| caption1 = Ecological reconstruction of ''Opabinia'' on the seafloor along with other [[Paleobiota of the Burgess Shale|fauna from the Burgess Shale]] 
| image2 = 20210812 Opabinia regalis proboscis frontal appendage mobility.gif
| caption2 = Suggested proboscis mobility of ''Opabinia''<ref name="Whittington1975" />
}}
The way in which the [[Burgess Shale]] animals were buried, by a mudslide or a sediment-laden current that acted as a sandstorm, suggests they lived on the surface of the seafloor.<ref name="Whittington1975" /> ''Opabinia'' probably used its proboscis to search the sediment for food particles and pass them to its mouth.<ref name="Whittington1975" /> Since there is no sign of anything that might function as jaws, its food was presumably small and soft.<ref name="Whittington1975" /> The paired gut [[diverticula]] may increase the efficiency of food digestion and intake of nutrition.<ref name=":7" /> Whittington (1975) believing that ''Opabinia'' had no legs, thought that it crawled on its lobes and that it could also have swum slowly by flapping the lobes, especially if it timed the movements to create a [[wave]] with the metachronal movement of its lobes.<ref name="Whittington1975" /> On the other hand, he thought the body was not flexible enough to allow fish-like undulations of the whole body.<ref name="Whittington1975"/>