Isoxys was a bivalved arthropod, which was probably a free-swimming predator. It had a large pair of spherical eyes (which are the most commonly preserved feature of the soft-bodied anatomy), and two large appendages, which have led to speculation that it may be related to the great appendage

Great appendage

Great appendages are large claw-like appendages which attach to the heads of the "great appendage arthropods", a group whose monophyly is debated, but which includes the anomalocaridids...

 arthropods.

Ecology

It was abundant in tropical seas, and may have had a global distribution.
Eyes of different specimens appear to have been adapted to different light intensities; one specimen of I. auritus was either crepuscular in shallow water, or lived in waters around 140 m below the sea surface; whereas another was morphologically adapted to a diurnal light intensity in shallow waters.

Species

There are a number of species of Isoxys. I. volucris is the most abundant in the Sirius Passet

Sirius Passet

Sirius Passet is a Cambrian Lagerstätte in Greenland. The Sirius Passet Lagerstätte was named after the Sirius sledge patrol that operates in North Greenland. It comprises six localities located on the eastern shore of J.P. Koch Fjord in the far north of Greenland. It was discovered in 1984 by A....

 locality; I. auritus is found in China.

See also

• Arthropod
  Arthropod
  An arthropod is an invertebrate animal having an exoskeleton , a segmented body, and jointed appendages. Arthropods are members of the phylum Arthropoda , and include the insects, arachnids, crustaceans, and others...
  
  
• Cambrian explosion
  Cambrian explosion
  The Cambrian explosion or Cambrian radiation was the relatively rapid appearance, around , of most major phyla, as demonstrated in the fossil record, accompanied by major diversification of other organisms, including animals, phytoplankton, and calcimicrobes...
  
  
• Chengjiang biota
  • List of Chengjiang Biota species by phylum