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Marrellomorph
Marrellomorpha are an extinct group of arthropods known from the Cambrian to the Early Devonian. They lacked mineralised hard parts, so are only known from Lagerstätte, areas of exceptional preservation, limiting their fossil distribution. The best known member is ''Marrella'', with thousands of specimens found in the Cambrian aged Burgess Shale of Canada. Taxonomy The group is divided up into two major orders, Marrellida and Acercostraca. Marrellida is recognised by the possession of head shields with two or three pairs of elongate spine-like projections, and three attached pairs of uniramous (single-branched) appendages, while Acercostraca generally have large ovoid carapaces that cover the entire upper half of the body, and five pairs of uniramous appendages attached to the head section. Both groups have unbranched Antenna (zoology), antennae and a segmented Tagma (biology), trunk with biramous (divided into two branches) appendages. Recent research has suggested the previou ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Marrella
''Marrella'' is an extinct genus of marrellomorph arthropod known from the Middle Cambrian of North America and Asia. It is the most common animal represented in the Burgess Shale of British Columbia, Canada, with tens of thousands of specimens collected. Much rarer remains are also known from deposits in China. History ''Marrella'' was the first fossil collected by Charles Doolittle Walcott from the Burgess Shale, in 1909. Walcott described ''Marrella'' informally as a "lace crab" and described it more formally as an odd trilobite. It was later reassigned to the now defunct class Trilobitoidea in the ''Treatise on Invertebrate Paleontology''. In 1971, Whittington undertook a thorough redescription of the animal and, on the basis of its legs, gills and head appendages, concluded that it was neither a trilobite, nor a chelicerate, nor a crustacean. ''Marrella'' is one of several unique arthropod-like organisms found in the Burgess Shale. Other examples are '' Opabinia'' and ' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Xylokorys
''Xylokorys'' is a genus of marrellomorph known from two specimens from the Silurian The Silurian ( ) is a geologic period and system spanning 23.5 million years from the end of the Ordovician Period, at million years ago ( Mya), to the beginning of the Devonian Period, Mya. The Silurian is the third and shortest period of t ... Herefordshire lagerstatte; it filter-fed on mud particles on the sea floor. It is the only marrellomorph known from the Silurian period. References Silurian arthropods of Europe Marrellomorpha {{paleo-arthropod-stub ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Primicaris
''Primicaris'' is genus of Cambrian arthropod from the Chengjiang biota of China and the Burgess Shale of Canada. It contains a single described species, ''P. larvaformis''. Description Specimens range from in length, and in maximum width. The undivided subovate-shaped dorsal shield covered the entire body, and wrapped around the front edge of the carapace, forming a doublure structure. The midline of the carapace exhibited thickening. There is a pair of slender uniramous segmented antennae, as well as ten pairs of biramous limbs. The exopods of these limbs are flagellate and bear setae, with the exopods decreasing in size posteriorly. The endopods are poorly preserved. Taxonomy Its specimens were once thought to be meraspids of ''Naraoia spinosa''. Although their phylogenetic position has been described as "problematic", recent studies have suggested them to be marrellomorphs belonging to the subgroup Acercostraca. See also * Arthropod * Cambrian explosion * List of Che ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Skania
''Skania'' is a Cambrian fossil arthropod. The type species, ''S. fragillis'', is known from the Burgess Shale of British Columbia, Canada. A second possible species ''"S." sundbergi'' is known from the Kaili Formation of China, but its placement within the genus has been questioned. Description Specimens of ''S. fragillis'' range in length from The cordiform dorsal shield/carapace covers the entire body, with its midline having a raised keel. The shield curls around the front to form a doublure, with the posterior edge of the doublure having a pair of lateral spines. A pair of spines is also present on the posterior of the dorsal shield. A hypostome was present on the underside of the head. There are two sets of appendages, the first 5 pairs of appendages are elongate, the first one of which is described as an antenna and has small subquadrate segments/podomeres, while the others have elongate subrectangular segments. These appendages are somewhat curved and extend beyo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Burgessia
''Burgessia'' is a genus of arthropod known from the mid-Cambrian aged Burgess Shale of British Columbia, Canada. It is relatively abundant, with over 1,700 specimens having been collected. Description The body had an unsegmented approximately circular carapace that was somewhat convex. It was likely thin and had only weak sclerotization. A pair of tapering flexible segmented antennae projected forwards from the head, which were about equal in length to the carapace, these were likely tactile in function. There are three pairs of cephalic appendages excluding the antennae that functioned as walking limbs, as well as seven pairs of biramous (two-branched) walking limbs with gills, otherwise similar to the cephalic limbs running along the trunk, which decreased in size posteriorly. Although not visible on any specimens, the mouth was almost certainly located on the underside of the body. The circular carapace was largely occupied by the guts, which were divided into two sect ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Artiopoda
Artiopoda is a clade 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. Trilobites, in part due to abundance of findings owing to their mineralized exoskeletons, are by far the best recorded, diverse, and long lived members of the clade. Other members, which lack mineralised exoskeletons, are known mostly from Cambrian The Cambrian ( ) is the first geological period of the Paleozoic Era, and the Phanerozoic Eon. The Cambrian lasted 51.95 million years from the end of the preceding Ediacaran period 538.8 Ma (million years ago) to the beginning of the Ordov ... deposits. Description According to Stein and Selden (2012) artiopods are recognised by the possession of filiform antennulae, limbs with bilobate exopods (upper branches), with the proximal (closest to base of the limb) lobe being elong ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Arthropod
Arthropods ( ) are invertebrates in the phylum Arthropoda. They possess an arthropod exoskeleton, exoskeleton with a cuticle made of chitin, often Mineralization (biology), mineralised with calcium carbonate, a body with differentiated (Metamerism (biology), metameric) Segmentation (biology), segments, and paired jointed appendages. 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. They form an extremely diverse group of up to ten million species. Haemolymph is the analogue of blood for most arthropods. An arthropod has an open circulatory system, with a body cavity called a haemocoel through which haemolymph circulates to the interior Organ (anatomy), organs. Like their exteriors, the internal organs of arthropods are generally built of repeated segments. They have ladder-like nervous systems, with paired Anatomical terms of location#Dorsal and ventral, ventral Ventral nerve cord, nerve cord ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lagerstätte
A Fossil-Lagerstätte (, from ''Lager'' 'storage, lair' '' Stätte'' 'place'; plural ''Lagerstätten'') is a sedimentary deposit that preserves an exceptionally high amount of palaeontological information. ''Konzentrat-Lagerstätten'' preserve a high concentration of fossils, while ''Konservat-Lagerstätten'' offer exceptional fossil preservation, sometimes including preserved soft tissues. ''Konservat-Lagerstätten'' may have resulted from carcass burial in an anoxic environment with minimal bacteria, thus delaying the decomposition of both gross and fine biological features until long after a durable impression was created in the surrounding matrix. ''Fossil-Lagerstätten'' spans geological time from the Neoproterozoic era to the present. Worldwide, some of the best examples of near-perfect fossilization are the Cambrian Maotianshan shales and Burgess Shale, the Ordovician Soom Shale, the Silurian Waukesha Biota, the Devonian Hunsrück Slates and Gogo Formation, the Ca ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Stem Group
In phylogenetics, the crown group or crown assemblage is a collection of species composed of the living representatives of the collection, the most recent common ancestor of the collection, and all descendants of the most recent common ancestor. It is thus a way of defining a clade, a group consisting of a species and all its extant or extinct descendants. For example, Neornithes (birds) can be defined as a crown group, which includes the most recent common ancestor of all modern birds, and all of its extant or extinct descendants. The concept was developed by Willi Hennig, the formulator of phylogenetic systematics, as a way of classifying living organisms relative to their extinct relatives in his "Die Stammesgeschichte der Insekten", and the "crown" and "stem" group terminology was coined by R. P. S. Jefferies in 1979. Though formulated in the 1970s, the term was not commonly used until its reintroduction in 2000 by Graham Budd and Sören Jensen. Contents of the crown ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cambrian Stage 3
Cambrian Stage 3 is the still unnamed third stage of the Cambrian. It succeeds Cambrian Stage 2 and precedes Cambrian Stage 4, although neither its base nor top have been formally defined. The plan is for its lower boundary to correspond approximately to the first appearance of trilobites, about million years ago, though the globally asynchronous appearance of trilobites warrants the use of a separate, globally synchronous marker to define the base. The upper boundary and beginning of Cambrian Stage 4 is informally defined as the first appearance of the trilobite genera ''Olenellus'' or ''Redlichia'' around million years ago. Naming The International Commission on Stratigraphy has not officially named the 3rd stage of the Cambrian. The stage approximately corresponds to the "Atdabanian", which is used by geologists working in Siberia. Biostratigraphy The oldest trilobite known is ''Lemdadella'' which appears at the beginning of the ''Fallotaspis'' zone. The Cambrian radiation of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Maotianshan Shales
The Maotianshan Shales () are a series of Early Cambrian sedimentary deposits in the Chiungchussu Formation or Heilinpu Formation, famous for their '' 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 of British Columbia, Canada. They take their name from Maotianshan Hill () 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 ≤. Along with the Burgess Shale, the Maotianshan Shales ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wuliuan
The Wuliuan stage is the fifth stage of the Cambrian, and the first stage of the Miaolingian Series of the Cambrian. It was formally defined by the International Commission on Stratigraphy in 2018. Its base is defined by the first appearance of the trilobite species '' Oryctocephalus indicus''; it ends with the beginning of the Drumian Stage, marked by the first appearance of the trilobite '' Ptychagnostus atavus'' around million years ago. The 'golden spike' that formally defines the base of the age is driven into the Wuliu-Zengjiayan (乌溜-曾家崖) section of the Kaili formation, near Balang Village in the Miaoling Mountains, Guizhou, China. GSSP Three sections were discussed as GSSP candidates: the Wuliu-Zengjiayan section near Balang in Guizhou province (China), a section on Split Mountain in Nevada (USA) and the "Molodo river section" along the Molodo river (Sakha Republic, Russia). The Wuliu-Zengjiayan section is an outcrop of the Kaili Formation in the Wuliu quarr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
