First occurrence of the Cambrian arthropod Sidneyia Walcott, 1911 outside of Laurentia

The arthropod Sidneyia Walcott, 1911 is a remarkable animal of the Burgess Shale biota (Cambrian Miaolingian, Wuliuan; British Columbia, Canada), which has not been confidently reported from other Cambrian Konservat-Lagerstätten. Here we report the discovery of Sidneyia cf. inexpectans from the Wuliuan Mantou Formation of North China, which substantially expands the known palaeogeographical distribution of this genus. Our discovery suggests that Sidneyia had much greater dispersal ability than hitherto thought. It also confirms the presence of exceptionally preserved fossils in the Wuliuan Mantou Formation, one of the rare Burgess Shale-type deposits of North China.