The first known radiodont specimens were collected from the trilobite beds of Mount Stephen by Richard G. McConnell of the Geological Survey of Canada in 1886 or 1888. These specimens were named Anomalocaris canadensis in 1892 by GSC paleontologist Joseph Whiteaves. Whiteaves interpreted the specimens, now known to be isolated frontal appendages, as the abdomen of a phyllocarid crustacean. Additional radiodont specimens were described in 1911 by Charles Walcott. He interpreted an isolated oral cone, which he named Peytoia, as a jellyfish, and a poorly-preserved but relatively complete specimen, which he named Laggania, as a holothurian. In 1912 Walcott named Hurdia based on an isolated h-element, which he interpreted as the carapace of a crustacean. A Hurdia p-element was named Proboscicaris in 1962, and interpreted as the carapace of a bivalved arthropod.