First described in 2020, this ancient arthropod has a length of about 5 cm (2 inches) and a width of about 1.2 cm (0.5 inches). Kylinxia zhangi is part of the Chengjiang biota in Yunnan Province, China, where more than 250 species of exceptionally preserved fossil organisms are found.

According to Dr. Greg Edgecombe, a paleontologist from Yunnan University and the Natural History Museum in London, most of the theories on the evolution of arthropod heads are based on early branching species with fewer segments. However, the discovery of two previously undetected pairs of legs in Kylinxia zhangi revealed that living arthropods have inherited a six-segmented head from their ancestors at least 518 million years ago.