Louisella is a genus of worm known from the Middle Cambrian Burgess Shale. It was originally described by Charles Walcott in 1911 as a holothurian echinoderm, and represents a senior synonym of Miskoia, which was originally described as an annelid. 48 specimens of Louisella are known from the Greater Phyllopod bed, where they comprise < 0.1% of the community. It has been stated to have palaeoscolecid-like sclerites, though this is not in fact the case.Smith, M.R. 2015: A palaeoscolecid worm from the Burgess Shale. Palaeontology 58, 973–979.
It's also been interpreted as an annelidMadsen, F.J. 1957: On Walcott’s Supposed Cambrian Holothurians. Journal of Paleontology 31, 281–282. and a sipunculan,Howell, B.F. 1962: Worms. In Moore, R. C. (ed.), Treatise on Invertebrate Paleontology W (Miscellanea), W144–W177. Geological Society of America, New York. (neither on particularly compelling grounds) and a pripaulid,Conway Morris, S. 1977: Fossil priapulid worms. Special Papers in Palaeontology 20, 1–95. but it is more conservatively considered to represent an ecdysozoan worm; deep ecdysozoan relationships are not yet well resolved, making a more precise affiliation challenging.
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