Maotianshan Shales fossil record. Phylum Porifera (sponges; 15 species) and Priapulida (16 species) are also well represented. Other phyla represented are Brachiopoda, Chaetognatha, Cnidaria, Ctenophora, Echinodermata, Hyolitha, Nematomorpha, Phoronida, and Chordata. Possible molluscs include "Wiwaxia" and "Nectocaris". About one in eight animals are problematic forms of uncertain affinity, some of which may have been evolutionary experiments that survived for only a brief period as benthic environments rapidly changed in the Cambrian. Chengjiang is the richest source of the lobopodia, a group including many early panarthropods, with six genera represented: "Luolishania", "Paucipodia", "Cardiodictyon"," Hallucigenia" (also known from the Burgess Shale), "Microdictyon", and "Onychodictyon".
Bacterial phyla warrant a new phylum. Most of these are thermophiles and often also chemolithoautotrophs, such as Aquificae, which oxidises hydrogen gas. Other non-thermophiles, such as Acidobacteria, a ubiquitous phylum with divergent physiologies, have been found, some of which are chemolithotrophs, such as "Nitrospira" (nitrile-oxidising) or "Leptospirillum" (Fe-oxidising)., some proposed phyla however do not appear in LPSN as they were insufficiently described or are awaiting approval or it is debated if they may belong to a pre-existing phylum. An example of this is the genus "Caldithrix", consisting of "C. palaeochoryensis" and "C. abyssi", which is considered Deferribacteres, however, it shares only 81%