Non-trilobite arthropods from the Silver Peak Range, Nevada

2003 ◽  
Vol 77 (4) ◽  
pp. 706-720 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ben Waggoner

Two non-trilobite arthropods are described from the Emigrant Formation (Lower Cambrian-Lower Ordovician) in the Silver Peak Range, Esmeralda County, Nevada. A Middle or Upper Cambrian “arachnomorph” arthropod with a phosphatic exoskeleton has been noted in previous faunal lists, but has not been previously described. This fossil is here named Quasimodaspis brentsae gen. et sp. nov. Q. brentsae belongs in the Aglaspidida, a close outgroup to the true chelicerates; this is the second report of an aglaspidid from the Great Basin. Esmeraldacaris richardsonae gen. et sp. nov. is a newly discovered arthropod from the lower Ordovician, from beds transitional between the Emigrant Formation and the overlying Palmetto Formation. It is a survivor of an early arthropod lineage that does not belong in any extant taxon, but which may also include the Ordovician Corcorania and the Cambrian Mollisonia.

2000 ◽  
Vol 74 (5) ◽  
pp. 828-838 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nigel C. Hughes ◽  
Gerald O. Gunderson ◽  
Michael J. Weedon

Several localities within the heterolithic facies of the St. Lawrence Formation (Upper Cambrian) of Wisconsin and Minnesota yield specimens with phosphatic exoskeletons, quadrate cross sections composed of four equidimensional faces each bearing a midline, and possible holdfast attachment during life. These specimens are here referred to the order Conulariida, class Scyphozoa. Their fine, tuberculate surface ornament and serially invaginated midline structure serve to define a new genus, Baccaconularia, to which two new species, B. robinsoni and B. meyeri, are assigned. Conularia cambria Walcott 1890, also from the Cambrian of the northern Mississippi Valley and long dismissed as a misidentified trilobite fragment, is illustrated photographically for the first time. This species occurs in rocks stratigraphically beneath the St. Lawrence Formation. Specimens assigned to this species by Walcott are conulariids, but lack features now considered diagnostic of either Conularia or Baccaconularia. Walcott's material is insufficient to permit detailed taxonomic evaluation, and we isolate this name to this material, pending the collection of additional, better preserved specimens. Together, Baccaconularia and Conularia cambria contain the oldest large conulariids, and these narrow a stratigraphic gap between other large conulariids known from the Lower Ordovician onwards, and smaller fossils with conulariid affinities known only from Lower Cambrian rocks.


1988 ◽  
Vol 25 (5) ◽  
pp. 669-690 ◽  
Author(s):  
Saifullah K. Tanoli ◽  
Ron K. Pickerill

The Cambrian – Lower Ordovician Saint John Group of the Saint John area, southern New Brunswick, has historically been subdivided into 11 formations. The existing scheme is inappropriate, however, as many of the supposed formations, particularly those of Middle Cambrian–Early Ordovician age, were distinguished on a biostratigraphic rather than lithostratigraphic basis. We suggest the sequence can be more appropriately subdivided into seven formations, each of which can be clearly and easily identified by the field geologist. Lower Cambrian formations comprise, from base to top, the Ratcliffe Brook, Glen Falls, and Hanford Brook formations, all of which are retained from the previous nomenclature. Middle Cambrian strata comprise the Forest Hills Formation (to replace the Fossil Brook and Porter Road formations) and Upper Cambrian strata the King Square Formation (to replace the Hastings Cove and Agnostus Cove formations) and Silver Falls Formation (to replace the Black Shale Brook and Narrows formations). Lower Ordovician strata are referred to as the Reversing Falls Formation (to replace the Navy Island and Suspension Bridge formations). Descriptions of each formation are given, major sections of each are included, and stratigraphic correlation of the sequence in different geographic areas is demonstrated.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Gerd Geyer ◽  
Ed Landing

AbstractEpisodic low oxygenated conditions on the sea-floor are likely responsible for exceptional preservation of animal remains in the upper Amouslek Formation (lower Cambrian, Stage 3) on the northern slope of the western Anti-Atlas, Morocco. This stratigraphic interval has yielded trilobite, brachiopod, and hyolith fossils with preserved soft parts, including some of the oldest known trilobite guts. The “Souss fossil lagerstätte” (newly proposed designation) represents the first Cambrian fossil lagerstätte in Cambrian strata known from Africa and is one of the oldest trilobite-bearing fossil lagerstätten on Earth. Inter-regional correlation of the Souss fossil lagerstätte in West Gondwana suggests its development during an interval of high eustatic levels recorded by dark shales that occur in informal upper Cambrian Series 2 in Siberia, South China, and East Gondwana.


1988 ◽  
Vol 62 (2) ◽  
pp. 218-233 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Mark Malinky

Concepts of the family Hyolithidae Nicholson fide Fisher and the genera Hyolithes Eichwald and Orthotheca Novak have been expanded through time to encompass a variety of morphologically dissimilar shells. The Hyolithidae is here considered to include only those hyolithid species which have a rounded (convex) dorsum; slopes on the dorsum are inflated, and the venter may be flat or slightly inflated. Hyolithes encompasses species which possess a low dorsum and a prominent longitudinal sulcus along each edge of the dorsum; the ligula is short and the apertural rim is flared. The emended concept of Orthotheca includes only those species of orthothecid hyoliths which have a subtriangular transverse outline and longitudinal lirae covering the shell on both dorsum and venter.Eighteen species of Hyolithes and one species of Orthotheca from the Appalachian region and Western Interior were reexamined in light of more modern taxonomic concepts and standards of quality for type material. Reexamination of type specimens of H. similis Walcott from the Lower Cambrian of Newfoundland, H. whitei Resser from the Lower Cambrian of Nevada, H. billingsi Walcott from the Lower Cambrian of Nevada, H. gallatinensis Resser from the Upper Cambrian of Wyoming, and H. partitus Resser from the Middle Cambrian of Alabama indicates that none of these species represents Hyolithes. Hyolithes similis is here included under the new genus Similotheca, in the new family Similothecidae. Hyolithes whitei is designated as the type species of the new genus Nevadotheca, to which H. billingsi may also belong. Hyolithes gallatinensis is referred to Burithes Missarzhevsky with question, and H. partitus may represent Joachimilites Marek. The type or types of H. attenuatus Walcott, H. cecrops Walcott, H. comptus Howell, H. cowanensis Resser, H. curticei Resser, H. idahoensis Resser, H. prolixus Resser, H. resseri Howell, H. shaleri Walcott, H. terranovicus Walcott, and H. wanneri Resser and Howell lack shells and/or other taxonomically important features such as a complete aperture, rendering the diagnoses of these species incomplete. Their names should only be used for the type specimens until better preserved topotypes become available for study. Morphology of the types of H.? corrugatus Walcott and “Orthotheca” sola Resser does not support placement in the Hyolitha; the affinities of these species are uncertain.


2005 ◽  
Vol 96 (2) ◽  
pp. 163-176 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dieter Waloszek ◽  
John E. Repetski ◽  
Andreas Maas

ABSTRACTPentastomida, tongue worms, are a taxon of about 130 species of parasites, living exclusively in the respiratory tracts of vertebrates. Three-dimensionally preserved Upper Cambrian larvae already demonstrate a high degree of adaptation to parasitism, striking morphological conservatism, and a high diversification by the Late Cambrian, thereby suggesting a likewise diversified host group. Not least due to their highly modified morphology, the systematic affinities of pentastomids remain controversial. The two major alternatives place the group as either close to branchiuran crustaceans or as stem-lineage derivatives of the Euarthropoda. To this set of Cambrian fossil representatives of the pentastomids we can add a new form from Lower Ordovician boundary beds from Sweden, most likely reworked from Upper Cambrian horizons. Based on this new species, named Aengapentastomum andresi gen. et sp. nov., and the available information about fossil and Recent pentastomids, we review the diverging ideas on the systematic position of this fully parasitic taxon.


1986 ◽  
Vol 60 (3) ◽  
pp. 606-626 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bruce L. Stinchcomb

Fourteen new species and six new genera of the molluscan class Monoplacophora are described from the Upper Cambrian Potosi and Eminence formations and the Lower Ordovician Gasconade Formation of the Ozark Uplift of Missouri and some new biostratigraphic horizons are introduced. A new superfamily, the Hypseloconellacea nom. trans. Knight, 1956, and a new family, the Shelbyoceridae, are named. The genus Proplina is represented by five new species: P. inflatus, P. suttoni from the Cambrian Potosi Formation, P. arcua from the Cambrian Eminence Formation and P. meramecensis and P. sibeliusi from the Lower Ordovician Gasconade Formation. A new genus and species in the subfamily Proplininae, Ozarkplina meramecensis, is described from the Upper Cambrian Eminence Formation. Four new monoplacophoran genera in the superfamily Hypseloconellacea and their species are described, including: Cambrioconus expansus, Orthoconus striatus, Cornuella parva from the Eminence Formation, and Gasconadeoconus ponderosa, G. waynesvillensis, G. expansus from the Gasconade Formation. A new genus in the new family Shelbyoceridae, Archeoconus missourensis, is described from the Eminence Formation and a new species of Shelbyoceras, S. bigpineyensis, is described from the Gasconade Formation.


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