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Xenusion auerswaldae is an early lobopodian known from three<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> specimens found in glacial erratics on the Baltic coast of Germany.<ref name="Dzik1989">Template:Cite journal</ref> Another specimen, discovered shortly after the holotype, was briefly observed but soon went missing. Except for this lost specimen, the fossils probably originated in the Kalmarsund Sandstone of Southern Sweden,<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> which was deposited in the Lower Cambrian (Upper Tommotian–Lower Atdabanian; Stages 2→3).<ref name="Han2008">Template:Cite journal</ref> It is the oldest currently known lobopodian with soft body fossils.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>
The specimens are not especially well preserved. The older specimen is 10 cm or so in length with a narrow, weakly segmented body. Assuming it was the posterior section, the specimen was estimated to be part of an animal about 20 cm in length.<ref name="Dzik1989" /> A depression runs up the bottom on all but the rearmost segments. There is a slightly bulbous termination, and each segment before that seems to have a single pair of tapering annulated legs similar to the modern onychophoran, but without specialized feet and claws. More than 10 body segments were present.<ref name=":0">Template:Cite journal</ref> There is presumably a spine on each body bump and faint transverse parallel striations on the annulations on the legs.<ref name="Dzik1989" /><ref name=":0" /> The legs of what is possibly the foremost segments are either absent or not preserved. The head is believed to be missing or poorly preserved. Based on a new specimen that shows the anterior section, it possibly had a long narrow proboscis,<ref name="Dzik1989" /> but this also suggested to be a preservational artefact.<ref>RAMSKÖLD, L. and CHEN, J.-Y. 1998. Cambrian lobopodians: morphology and phylogeny. In EDGECOMBE, G. D. (ed.) Arthropod Fossils and Phylogeny, Columbia University Press, New York, 107–150 pp.</ref>
Xenusion has been reinterpreted as an Ediacaran frond animal by Tarlo, and a drawing of that interpretation has been presented by McMenamin.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> In a photograph presented in The Treatise on Invertebrate Paleontology Volume O, the organism's appearance seems to support the original interpretation more. Further studies of Xenusiid close the possibility of a Rangeomorphy affinity.<ref name="Dzik1989" /><ref name=":0" />