Ecological stasis in Spinicaudata (Crustacea, Branchiopoda)? Early Cretaceous clam shrimp of the Yixian Formation of north‐east China occupied a broader realized ecological niche than extant members of the group

The palaeoecology of Spinicaudata, the dominant group of benthic invertebrates in many pre‐Cenozoic freshwater environments, remains poorly understood. In analogy with extant taxa, it has been oversimplified and often reduced to shallow, temporary environments characterized by few trophic levels, implying ecological stasis from the Devonian to the Recent. We excavated 43 horizons of the Lower Cretaceous Yixian Formation (Anjiagou and Hengdaozi...