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Pygmaclypeatus
''Pygmaclypeatus'' is a genus of trilobite-like arthropod from the Cambrian aged Chengjiang biota of southern China. It is less than 20 mm in length. The carapace is flat and broad, and slightly shorter than it is wide. The trunk has 6 tergites, along with a terminal pygidium associated with a segmented short tailspine. The well developed paddle-like exopodites on the trunk limbs along with its small size suggests that it was an effective swimmer with a strong power stroke, and that it probably had a nektobenthic mode of life, swimming close to the ocean floor. Given its delicate spinose endites on the limbs it likely only consumed soft food and organic particles. It is considered to be closely related to ''Retifacies'' from the same deposit with shared characters including a segmented tailspine. It has been placed as a member of Artiopoda, possibly along with ''Retifacies'' the earliest diverging lineage of the Trilobitomorpha The Artiopoda is a grouping of extinct arthropods th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Trilobitomorpha
The Artiopoda is a grouping of extinct arthropods that includes trilobites and their close relatives. It was erected by Hou and Bergström in 1997 to encompass a wide diversity of arthropods that would traditionally have been assigned to the Trilobitomorpha. Hou and Bergström used the name Lamellipedia as a superclass to replace Trilobitomorpha that was originally erected at the subphylum level, which they considered inappropriate. Trilobites, in part due to their mineralising exoskeletons, are by far the most diverse and long lived members of the clade, with most records of other members, which lack mineralised exoskeletons, being from Cambrian deposits. Description According to Stein and Selden (2012) artiopods are recognised by the possession of filiform antennulae, limbs with bilobate exopods, with the proximal lobe being elongate and bearing a lamella, while the distal lobe is paddle-shaped and setiforous (bearing hair-or bristle like structures). The limb endopod has s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Artiopoda
The Artiopoda is a grouping of extinct arthropods that includes trilobites and their close relatives. It was erected by Hou and Bergström in 1997 to encompass a wide diversity of arthropods that would traditionally have been assigned to the Trilobitomorpha. Hou and Bergström used the name Lamellipedia as a superclass to replace Trilobitomorpha that was originally erected at the subphylum level, which they considered inappropriate. Trilobites, in part due to their mineralising exoskeletons, are by far the most diverse and long lived members of the clade, with most records of other members, which lack mineralised exoskeletons, being from Cambrian deposits. Description According to Stein and Selden (2012) artiopods are recognised by the possession of filiform antennulae, limbs with bilobate exopods, with the proximal lobe being elongate and bearing a lamella, while the distal lobe is paddle-shaped and setiforous (bearing hair-or bristle like structures). The limb endopod has se ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Retifacies
''Retifacies'' (''Retifacies abnormalis'') is an extinct arthropod, that lived in the lower Cambrian (about 518 million years ago). Its fossil remains have been found in the Maotianshan Shales of Yunnan, China. It is a member of the Artiopoda. Description This large animal could reach 55 centimeters in length, even though most of the specimens found were smaller. The cephalic shield was short, and was followed by a dozen tergites that overlapped each other. The rear part of the body consisted of a large shield and a long segmented tail. All the tergites had a surface made up of irregular polygons, unknown among other Maotianshan arthropods. Ventrally there were probably no eyes placed on peduncles, and immediately alongside there were two long antennae with short bristles. Like many primitive arthropods, this animal also had the classic biramous appendages, eighteen pairs in number. Three of these were positioned under the head, ten corresponded to the thoracic wipes and five ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Trilobite
Trilobites (; meaning "three lobes") are extinct marine arthropods that form the class Trilobita. Trilobites form one of the earliest-known groups of arthropods. The first appearance of trilobites in the fossil record defines the base of the Atdabanian stage of the Early Cambrian period () and they flourished throughout the lower Paleozoic before slipping into a long decline, when, during the Devonian, all trilobite orders except the Proetida died out. The last extant trilobites finally disappeared in the mass extinction at the end of the Permian about 252 million years ago. Trilobites were among the most successful of all early animals, existing in oceans for almost 270 million years, with over 22,000 species having been described. By the time trilobites first appeared in the fossil record, they were already highly diversified and geographically dispersed. Because trilobites had wide diversity and an easily fossilized exoskeleton, they left an extensive fossil record. The stu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Arthropod
Arthropods (, (gen. ποδός)) are invertebrate animals with an exoskeleton, a Segmentation (biology), segmented body, and paired jointed appendages. Arthropods form the phylum Arthropoda. They are distinguished by their jointed limbs and Arthropod cuticle, cuticle made of chitin, often Mineralization (biology), mineralised with calcium carbonate. The arthropod body plan consists of segments, each with a pair of appendages. Arthropods are bilaterally symmetrical and their body possesses an exoskeleton, external skeleton. In order to keep growing, they must go through stages of moulting, a process by which they shed their exoskeleton to reveal a new one. Some species have wings. They are an extremely diverse group, with up to 10 million species. The haemocoel, an arthropod's internal cavity, through which its haemolymph – analogue of blood – circulates, accommodates its interior Organ (anatomy), organs; it has an open circulatory system. Like their exteriors, the internal or ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cambrian
The Cambrian Period ( ; sometimes symbolized C with bar, Ꞓ) was the first geological period of the Paleozoic Era, and of the Phanerozoic Eon. The Cambrian lasted 53.4 million years from the end of the preceding Ediacaran Period 538.8 million years ago (mya) to the beginning of the Ordovician Period mya. Its subdivisions, and its base, are somewhat in flux. The period was established as "Cambrian series" by Adam Sedgwick, who named it after Cambria, the Latin name for 'Cymru' (Wales), where Britain's Cambrian rocks are best exposed. Sedgwick identified the layer as part of his task, along with Roderick Murchison, to subdivide the large "Transition Series", although the two geologists disagreed for a while on the appropriate categorization. The Cambrian is unique in its unusually high proportion of sedimentary deposits, sites of exceptional preservation where "soft" parts of organisms are preserved as well as their more resistant shells. As a result, our understanding of the Ca ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Maotianshan Shales
The Maotianshan Shales are a series of Cambrian, Early Cambrian deposits in the Chiungchussu Formation, famous for their ''Lagerstätte, Konservat Lagerstätten'', deposits known for the exceptional preservation of fossilized organisms or traces. The Maotianshan Shales form one of some forty Cambrian fossil locations worldwide exhibiting exquisite preservation of rarely preserved, non-mineralized soft tissue, comparable to the fossils of the Burgess Shale. They take their name from Maotianshan Hill (, Literal meaning: Hat Sky Mountain) in Chengjiang County, Yunnan Province, China. The most famous assemblage of organisms are referred to as the Chengjiang biota for the multiple scattered fossil sites in Chengjiang. The age of the Chengjiang Lagerstätte is locally termed Qiongzhusian, a stage correlated to the late Atdabanian Stage in Siberian sequences of the middle of the Early Cambrian. The shales date to ≤. The shales also contain the slightly younger Guanshan biota from Mal ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tergites
A ''tergum'' (Latin for "the back"; plural ''terga'', associated adjective tergal) is the dorsal ('upper') portion of an arthropod segment other than the head. The anterior edge is called the 'base' and posterior edge is called the 'apex' or 'margin'. A given tergum may be divided into hardened plates or sclerites commonly referred to as tergites. In a thoracic segment, for example, the tergum may be divided into an anterior notum and a posterior scutellum. Lateral extensions of a tergite are known as paranota (Greek for "alongside the back") or ''carinae'' (Latin for "keel"), exemplified by the flat-backed millipedes of the order Polydesmida. Kinorhynchs have tergal and sternal plates too, though seemingly not homologous with those of arthropods. Tergo-tergal is a stridulatory mechanism in which fine spines of the abdominal tergites are rubbed together to produce sound. This process is known as abdominal telescoping. Examples File:Andrena spiraeana abdomen.jpg , Abdominal t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pygidium
The pygidium (plural pygidia) is the posterior body part or shield of crustaceans and some other arthropods, such as insects and the extinct trilobites. In groups other than insects, it contains the anus and, in females, the ovipositor. It is composed of fused body segments, sometimes with a tail, and separated from thoracic segments by an articulation.Shultz, J.W. (1990). Evolutionary Morphology And Phylogeny of Arachnida. Cladistics 6: 1–38. Chelicerates In arachnids, the pygidium is formed by reduction of the last three opisthosomal segments to rings where there is no distinction between tergites and sternites. A pygidium is present in Palpigradi, Amblypygi, Thelyphonida, Schizomida, Ricinulei and in the extinct order Trigonotarbida. It is also present in early fossil representatives of horseshoe crabs. Trilobites In trilobites, the pygidium can range from extremely small (much smaller than the head, or cephalon) to larger than the cephalon. They can be smooth, as in order ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cambrian Arthropods
The Cambrian Period ( ; sometimes symbolized Ꞓ) was the first geological period of the Paleozoic Era, and of the Phanerozoic Eon. The Cambrian lasted 53.4 million years from the end of the preceding Ediacaran Period 538.8 million years ago (mya) to the beginning of the Ordovician Period mya. Its subdivisions, and its base, are somewhat in flux. The period was established as "Cambrian series" by Adam Sedgwick, who named it after Cambria, the Latin name for 'Cymru' (Wales), where Britain's Cambrian rocks are best exposed. Sedgwick identified the layer as part of his task, along with Roderick Murchison, to subdivide the large "Transition Series", although the two geologists disagreed for a while on the appropriate categorization. The Cambrian is unique in its unusually high proportion of sedimentary deposits, sites of exceptional preservation where "soft" parts of organisms are preserved as well as their more resistant shells. As a result, our understanding of the Cambrian biolo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Monotypic Arthropod Genera
In biology, a monotypic taxon is a taxonomic group (taxon) that contains only one immediately subordinate taxon. A monotypic species is one that does not include subspecies or smaller, infraspecific taxa. In the case of genera, the term "unispecific" or "monospecific" is sometimes preferred. In botanical nomenclature, a monotypic genus is a genus in the special case where a genus and a single species are simultaneously described. In contrast, an oligotypic taxon contains more than one but only a very few subordinate taxa. Examples Just as the term ''monotypic'' is used to describe a taxon including only one subdivision, the contained taxon can also be referred to as monotypic within the higher-level taxon, e.g. a genus monotypic within a family. Some examples of monotypic groups are: Plants * In the order Amborellales, there is only one family, Amborellaceae and there is only one genus, ''Amborella'', and in this genus there is only one species, namely ''Amborella trichopoda.'' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fossil Taxa Described In 2000
A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserved in amber, hair, petrified wood and DNA remnants. The totality of fossils is known as the ''fossil record''. Paleontology is the study of fossils: their age, method of formation, and evolutionary significance. Specimens are usually considered to be fossils if they are over 10,000 years old. The oldest fossils are around 3.48 billion years old to 4.1 billion years old. Early edition, published online before print. The observation in the 19th century that certain fossils were associated with certain rock strata led to the recognition of a geological timescale and the relative ages of different fossils. The development of radiometric dating techniques in the early 20th century allowed scientists to quantitatively measure the absolute ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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