Search

Studies that reveal detailed information about trilobite growth, particularly early developmental stages, are crucial for improving our understanding of the phylogenetic relationships within this iconic group of fossil arthropods. Here we document an essentially complete ontogeny of the trilobite Redlichia cf. versabunda from the Cambrian Series 2 (late Stage 4) Ramsay Limestone of Yorke Peninsula in South Australia, including some of the best-preserved protaspides (the earliest biomineralized trilobite larval stage) known for any Cambrian trilobite. These protaspid stages exhibit similar morphological characteristics to many other taxa within the Suborder Redlichiina, especially to closely related species such as Metaredlichia cylindrica from the early Cambrian period of China. Morphological patterns observed across early developmental stages of different groups within the Order Redlichiida are discussed. Although redlichiine protaspides exhibit similar overall morphologies, certain ontogenetic characters within this suborder have potential phylogenetic signal, with different superfamilies characterized by unique trait combinations in these early growth stages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Illaenid trilobites were relatively scarce in south-polar peri-Gondwanan areas during the Ordovician, with all their African occurrences restricted to the Middle and Upper Ordovician of Morocco. At a specific level, only the Bohemian form Ectillaenus benignensis (Novák) has been positively identified from the Middle Ordovician of that region. In the present work we add the discovery of the new form Caudillaenus nicolasi gen. et sp. nov., occurring in a single bed of late Darriwilian 2 age within the Taddrist Formation of the Rahiat region (south of Alnif), in the central Moroccan Anti-Atlas. The new genus is characterized by a large and subtriangular pygidium, a cephalon with relatively large eyes, a broad rostral plate with a short upwardly and forwardly turned posterior flange, and a globose hypostome. It shows a spheroidal enrolment type previously unknown in illaenids, with the pygidium protruding beyond the cephalon, and the cephalic margin fitting into a shallow and wide coaptative furrow on the pygidial doublure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Until recently, intricate details of the optical design of non-biomineralized arthropod eyes remained elusive in Cambrian Burgess-Shale-type deposits, despite exceptional preservation of soft-part anatomy in such Konservat-Lagerstätten. The structure and development of ommatidia in arthropod compound eyes support a single origin some time before the latest common ancestor of crown-group arthropods, but the appearance of compound eyes in the arthropod stem group has been poorly constrained in the absence of adequate fossils. Here we report 2-3-cm paired eyes from the early Cambrian (approximately 515 million years old) Emu Bay Shale of South Australia, assigned to the Cambrian apex predator Anomalocaris. Their preserved visual surfaces are composed of at least 16,000 hexagonally packed ommatidial lenses (in a single eye), rivalling the most acute compound eyes in modern arthropods. The specimens show two distinct taphonomic modes, preserved as iron oxide (after pyrite) and calcium phosphate, demonstrating that disparate styles of early diagenetic mineralization can replicate the same type of extracellular tissue (that is, cuticle) within a single Burgess-Shale-type deposit. These fossils also provide compelling evidence for the arthropod affinities of anomalocaridids, push the origin of compound eyes deeper down the arthropod stem lineage, and indicate that the compound eye evolved before such features as a hardened exoskeleton. The inferred acuity of the anomalocaridid eye is consistent with other evidence that these animals were highly mobile visual predators in the water column. The existence of large, macrophagous nektonic predators possessing sharp vision-such as Anomalocaris-within the early Cambrian ecosystem probably helped to accelerate the escalatory 'arms race' that began over half a billion years ago. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The lower Cambrian Emu Bay Shale on Kangaroo Island, South Australia, contains the only known Cambrian Burgess Shale-type biota in Australia. Two new lamellipedian arthropods, Emucaris fava gen. et sp. nov. and Kangacaris zhangi gen. et sp. nov., from the Emu Bay Shale Lagerstätte are described as monotypic genera that are resolved cladistically as a monophyletic group that is sister to Naraoiidae + Liwiidae and classified within the Nektaspida as a new family Emucarididae. Shared derived characters of Emucarididae involve a bipartite, elongate hypostome and elongation of the pygidium relative to the cephalic shield and very short thorax. A monophyletic Liwiidae is composed of Liwia and the Ordovician Tariccoia + Soomaspis but excludes Buenaspis, and even the membership of Buenaspis in Nektaspida is contradicted amongst the shortest cladograms. New morphological interpretations favour affinities of Kwanyinaspis with Conciliterga rather than with Aglaspidida, and Phytophilaspis with Petalopleura. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Study of over 1000 specimens of Marrella splendens Walcott, 1912, out of the more than 9000 collected by the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) since 1975, has produced new information on the anatomy, functional morphology, and behaviour of this most common arthropod in the Burgess Shale fauna. Among the new features recognized is the distinction between the alimentary canal and circulatory system; where the former is generally three-dimensional and slightly reflective, the latter never presents any relief and is very reflective. A larger range of size is now known, from 2.4 to 24.5 mm in length, with small individuals possessing 17 body segments to large specimens with more than 26 body segments, representing an almost complete ontogenetic series. The second pair of "antennae" is now interpreted as swimming appendages, since the five distal segments are dorsoventrally compressed, fringed with setae and with a considerable blood supply, providing a paddlelike appendage capable of producing a considerable propelling force. The ROM collections extend the geographical distribution of Marrella 13 km to the southeast and the stratigraphical range through the lowest five members of the Burgess Shale Formation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Large quarrying surfaces of roofing slate in the Arouca Geopark (northern Portugal), formed under oxygen-depleted conditions, have yielded a unique Ordovician fossil lagerstätte that reveals new information on the social behavior of trilobites. It provides several of the world's largest trilobite specimens (some reaching 70 cm), showing evidence of possible polar gigantism in six different species, as well as numerous examples of monotaxic and polytaxic size-segregated autochthonous trilobite clusters, some of which contain as many as 1000 specimens. These reveal a very diverse social behavior, which includes temporary refuge from predation and synchronous molting and reproduction, demonstrated for the first time in five contemporary families of three different trilobite orders from a single formation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]