Helical chirality is common in living organisms today and the fossil record, however this phenomenon has remained almost unstudied, especially in small shelly fossils from the early Cambrian. Anabaritids are a kind of tubular fossils with distinct triradial symmetry, which are known from the early Cambrian strata worldwide. Previous studies on some helical species of anabaritids were mostly limited to morphological descriptions, and the reasons for their helical chirality were poorly discussed. Based on 111 specimens of Anabarites cf. tripartitus from Member 5 of the Yanjiahe Formation (Cambrian Stage 2) in Three Gorges area of Hubei Province, China, the mechanism of their fixed right-handed (dextral) spiral chirality was investigated. The cause of right-handed helical chirality should be inferred from the biological factors (e.g. functional morphology, molecular developmental biology) perspective of molecular genetics, instead of external environmental factors (e.g. water change, taphonomy, Coriolis force).