What does the scientific name of the Cambrian-Period sea creature Anomalocaris mean?

The story behind the answer

Abnormal Shrimp is the literal translation from Greek: anōmalos (irregular/abnormal) + karis/caris (shrimp). Early paleontologists found its spiny frontal appendage by itself and misidentified it as a strange shrimp, so the name stuck. Later, complete fossils revealed those “shrimp” were actually the grasping arms of a single large animal—Anomalocaris, a top Cambrian predator.

Context: Anomalocaris (a radiodont) cruised Cambrian seas with flapping side lobes, huge compound eyes, and a circular, toothy mouth, likely hunting trilobites and other fauna. Memory tip: caris = shrimp (as in “caridean shrimp”); anomal- = abnormal. So it’s not a crab (Greek karkinos), not a clam (a bivalve), and not a fish (ichthys)—it’s the “abnormal shrimp.”