scholarly journals A redescription of Chasmataspis laurencii Caster & Brooks, 1956 (Chelicerata: Chasmataspidida) from the Middle Ordovician of Tennessee, USA, with remarks on chasmataspid phylogeny

2003 ◽  
Vol 94 (3) ◽  
pp. 207-225 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jason A. Dunlop ◽  
Lyall I. Anderson ◽  
Simon J. Braddy
Keyword(s):  
Respiratory System ◽  
Phylogenetic Position ◽  
Axial Region ◽  
Shallow Marine ◽  
Middle Ordovician ◽  
Upper Cambrian ◽  
Ash Fall ◽  
Show Evidence ◽  
Depositional Setting ◽  
New Evidence

ABSTRACTThe type material of Chasmataspis laurencii Caster & Brooks, 1956 (Chelicerata: Chasmataspidida) from the Middle Ordovician (Tremadoc to Caradoc) of Sevier County, Tennessee, USA, is redescribed, and comparisons are drawn with recently discovered Devonian chasmataspids from Scotland, Germany and Russia. The depositional setting of the C. laurencii fossils is reinterpreted as an ash fall into shallow marine/tidal sediments. Chasmataspis laurencii confirms the presence of 13 opisthosomal segments in Chasmataspidida, a character of unresolved polarity. The phylogenetic position ofC. laurencii is difficult to resolve. A monophyletic Chasmataspidida has one convincing autapomorphy in the nine-segmented postabdomen, but C. laurencii shares a number of characters with xiphosurans (i.e. cardiac lobe, pre-abdomen with axial region, biramous and chelate limbs), while the Devonian taxa more closely resemble eurypterids (i.e. through pediform limbs and a genital appendage). Earlier interpretations of the respiratory system in C. laurencii appear unconvincing in the light of new evidence from Devonian forms with opisthosomal opercula. Resting impressions of a Chasmataspis-like animal from the Upper Cambrian Hickory Sandstone of Texas, USA, also appear to show evidence of opercula. These Texan fossils could represent the oldest record of Euchelicerata. Two chasmataspid families are recognised, and C. laurencii is placed in the monotypic Chasmataspididae Caster & Brooks, 1956, redefined here on the fused pre-abdominal buckler with an axial region and the narrow, elongate post-abdomen ending in a long, lanceolate telson.

Middle Ordovician Fish-bearing Beds from the St. Lawrence Lowlands of Quebec

1973 ◽  
Vol 10 (6) ◽  
pp. 954-960 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leslie S. Eliuk
Keyword(s):  
Lower Portion ◽  
Quebec City ◽  
Marine Environments ◽  
European Standard ◽  
Shallow Marine ◽  
Vertebrate Fauna ◽  
Middle Ordovician ◽  
Fish Remains ◽  
Black River Group

Ostracoderm tubercles were recovered from the lower portion of two Black River Group sections between Montreal and Quebec City. Some of these fish remains seem identical to tubercles of Astraspis desiderata from the Harding Sandstone of Colorado. The age of the Quebec remains is questionably earliest Blackriveran or basal Caradocian of the European standard. The remains were found in sandy carbonates probably laid down in the supratidal to shallow marine environments. It is concluded that these remains may represent part of a continent-wide, biostratigraphically useful vertebrate fauna and that bulk sampling and acid residuing might be a technique whereby sparse, fragmentary, earliest Paleozoic fish remains could be found.

Amsassia (calcareous alga) from the Lower Ordovician (Tremadocian) of western Newfoundland, and the biologic affinity and geologic history of the genus

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-18
Author(s):  
Dong-Jin Lee ◽  
Robert J. Elias ◽  
Brian R. Pratt
Keyword(s):  
South China ◽  
Geologic History ◽  
Shallow Marine ◽  
Middle Ordovician ◽  
Calcareous Alga ◽  
Tarim Block ◽  
Lower Ordovician ◽  
History Of ◽  
Argentine Precordillera ◽  
Extinct Group

Abstract Modular coral-like fossils from Lower Ordovician (Tremadocian) thrombolitic mounds in the St. George Group of western Newfoundland were initially identified as Lichenaria and thought to include the earliest tabulate corals. They are here assigned to Amsassia terranovensis n. sp. and Amsassia? sp. A from the Watts Bight Formation, and A. diversa n. sp. and Amsassia? sp. B from the overlying Boat Harbour Formation. Amsassia terranovensis n. sp. and A. argentina from the Argentine Precordillera are the earliest representatives of the genus. Amsassia is considered to be a calcareous alga, possibly representing an extinct group of green algae. The genus originated and began to disperse in the Tremadocian, during the onset of the Great Ordovician Biodiversification Event, on the southern margin of Laurentia and the Cuyania Terrane. It inhabited small, shallow-marine reefal mounds constructed in association with microbes. The paleogeographic range of Amsassia expanded in the Middle Ordovician (Darriwilian) to include the Sino-Korean Block, as well as Laurentia, and its environmental range expanded to include non-reefal, open- and restricted-marine settings. Amsassia attained its greatest diversity and paleogeographic extent in the Late Ordovician (Sandbian–Katian), during the culmination of the Great Ordovician Biodiversification Event. Its range included the South China Block, Tarim Block, Kazakhstan, and Siberia, as well as the Sino-Korean Block and Laurentia, and its affinity for small microbial mounds continued during that time. In the latest Ordovician (Hirnantian), the diversity of Amsassia was reduced, its distribution was restricted to non-reefal environments in South China, and it finally disappeared during the end-Ordovician mass extinction. UUID: http://zoobank.org/ef0abb69-10a6-46de-8c78-d6ec7de185fe

scholarly journals Lithostratigraphic and allostratigraphic framework of the Cambrian–Ordovician Potsdam Group and correlations across Early Paleozoic southern Laurentia

2017 ◽  
Vol 54 (5) ◽  
pp. 550-585 ◽  
Author(s):  
David G. Lowe ◽  
R.W.C. Arnott ◽  
Godfrey S. Nowlan ◽  
A.D. McCracken
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Early Paleozoic ◽  
Middle Cambrian ◽  
Shallow Marine ◽  
Upper Cambrian ◽  
Subaerial Exposure ◽  
Marine Sedimentation ◽  
Lower Ordovician ◽  
Fluvial Sedimentation ◽  
Mixed Carbonate

The Potsdam Group is a Cambrian to Lower Ordovician siliciclastic unit that crops out along the southeastern margins of the Ottawa graben. From its base upward, the Potsdam consists of the Ausable, Hannawa Falls, and Keeseville formations. In addition, the Potsdam is subdivided into three allounits: allounit 1 comprises the Ausable and Hannawa Falls, and allounits 2 and 3, respectively, the lower and upper parts of the Keeseville. Allounit 1 records Early to Middle Cambrian syn-rift arkosic fluvial sedimentation (Ausable Formation) with interfingering mudstone, arkose, and dolostone of the marine Altona Member recording transgression of the easternmost part of the Ottawa graben. Rift sedimentation was followed by a Middle Cambrian climate change resulting in local quartzose aeolian sedimentation (Hannawa Falls Formation). Allounit 1 sedimentation termination coincided with latest(?) Middle Cambrian tectonic reactivation of parts of the Ottawa graben. Allounit 2 (lower Keeseville) records mainly Upper Cambrian quartzose fluvial sedimentation, with transgression of the northern Ottawa graben resulting in deposition of mixed carbonate–siliciclastic strata of the marine Rivière Aux Outardes Member. Sedimentation was then terminated by an earliest Ordovician regression and unconformity development. Allounit 3 (upper Keeseville) records diachronous transgression across the Ottawa graben that by the Arenigian culminated in mixed carbonate–siliciclastic, shallow marine sedimentation (Theresa Formation). The contact separating the Potsdam Group and Theresa Formation is conformable, except locally in parts of the northern Ottawa graben where the presence of localized islands and (or) coastal salients resulted in subaerial exposure and erosion of the uppermost Potsdam strata, and accordingly unconformity development.

Trilobite abnormalities

1985 ◽  
Vol 76 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 255-272 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alan W. Owen
Keyword(s):  
Trophic Structure ◽  
Genetic Mutation ◽  
Normal Variation ◽  
Parasitic Infestation ◽  
Axial Region ◽  
Pathological Conditions ◽  
Abundant Evidence ◽  
Show Evidence ◽  
Narrow Gaps ◽  
Peripheral Regions

ABSTRACTThere is abundant evidence of injury, teratology and pathological conditions in trilobites although it is commonly difficult to distinguish between their morphological results. Many injuries were probably sustained during moulting, with spines, bilamellar fringes and narrow gaps between dorsal exoskeleton and doublure being most vulnerable. Some injuries were the result of predaceous attack and provide important clues to the trophic structure of Palaeozoic communities. Many injuries show evidence of repair. Some supposedly teratological conditions, most notably the number of paradoxidid thoracic segments, are so common that they must be considered part of normal variation. Others represent genetic mutation or ontogenetic malfunction, the latter possibly externally induced. Undoubted pathological conditions are restricted to swellings and borings presumably caused by parasitic infestation.Abnormalities affecting lateral areas are more common than those involving the rachis and glabella and this probably reflects both greater mortality when the axial region is involved, and greater vulnerability of peripheral regions to predaceous and moulting damage. The first explanation also accounts for the rarity of cephalic abnormalities compared to those of the pygidium.

scholarly journals Naked chancelloriids from the lower Cambrian of China show evidence for sponge-type growth

2018 ◽  
Vol 285 (1881) ◽  
pp. 20180296 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pei-Yun Cong ◽  
Thomas H. P. Harvey ◽  
Mark Williams ◽  
David J. Siveter ◽  
Derek J. Siveter ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Lower Cambrian ◽  
Body Cavity ◽  
Body Plan ◽  
The Body ◽  
Phylogenetic Position ◽  
Axis Formation ◽  
Large Size ◽  
Show Evidence ◽  
Body Plan Evolution ◽  
Extinct Group

Chancelloriids are an extinct group of spiny Cambrian animals of uncertain phylogenetic position. Despite their sponge-like body plan, their spines are unlike modern sponge spicules, but share several features with the sclerites of certain Cambrian bilaterians, notably halkieriids. However, a proposed homology of these ‘coelosclerites' implies complex transitions in body plan evolution. A new species of chancelloriid, Allonnia nuda , from the lower Cambrian (Stage 3) Chengjiang Lagerstätte is distinguished by its large size and sparse spination, with modified apical sclerites surrounding an opening into the body cavity. The sclerite arrangement in A. nuda and certain other chancelloriids indicates that growth involved sclerite addition in a subapical region, thus maintaining distinct zones of body sclerites and apical sclerites. This pattern is not seen in halkieriids, but occurs in some modern calcarean sponges. With scleritome assembly consistent with a sponge affinity, and in the absence of cnidarian- or bilaterian-grade features, it is possible to interpret chancelloriids as sponges with an unusually robust outer epithelium, strict developmental control of body axis formation, distinctive spicule-like structures and, by implication, minute ostia too small to be resolved in fossils. In this light, chancelloriids may contribute to the emerging picture of high disparity among early sponges.

Cambrian and Ordovician linguliform brachiopods from the Shallow Bay Formation (Cow Head Group), western Newfoundland

2001 ◽  
Vol 75 (2) ◽  
pp. 241-260 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sean P. Robson ◽  
Brian R. Pratt
Keyword(s):  
New Species ◽  
Continental Slope ◽  
Head Group ◽  
Lower Paleozoic ◽  
Middle Cambrian ◽  
Middle Ordovician ◽  
Upper Cambrian ◽  
Three New Species ◽  
Brachiopod Fauna ◽  
Shallow Bay

Linguliform brachiopods were recovered from the Upper Cambrian Downes Point Member (lower Sunwaptan) and from the Middle Ordovician Factory Cove Member (Arenig) of the Shallow Bay Formation, Cow Head Group, of western Newfoundland. These rocks are a series of Middle Cambrian to Middle Ordovician conglomerates, lime mudstones, and shales that formed a sediment apron at the base of the lower Paleozoic continental slope of Laurentia. The linguliform brachiopod fauna consists of sixteen species assigned to twelve genera. Three new species are described: Picnotreta lophocracenta, Neotreta humberensis, and Siphonotretella parvaducta.

Palynology of the Ordovician Kanosh Shale at Fossil Mountain, Utah

2015 ◽  
Vol 89 (3) ◽  
pp. 424-447 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marco Vecoli ◽  
John H. Beck ◽  
Paul K. Strother
Keyword(s):  
North America ◽  
Shallow Water ◽  
New Taxa ◽  
Middle Ordovician ◽  
Incomplete Knowledge ◽  
Late Cambrian ◽  
Freshwater Influence ◽  
Depositional Setting ◽  
Biological Differences

AbstractPalynomorph assemblages recovered from the Kanosh Shale at Fossil Mountain, Utah, are dominated by operculate acritarchs and cryptospores with minor smaller acritarchs. The present findings add new data to the largely incomplete knowledge of Ordovician acritarch assemblages from Laurentia, up to now known only from very few localities in North America. These populations contain some species in common with acritarchs from the Canning and Georgina basins in Australia and with assemblages from China; they indicate a Middle Ordovician (Dapingian-Darriwilian) age. The assemblage is lacking many typical marine acritarchs of this age, which, in combination with some cryptospores, is probably reflecting the likelihood of freshwater influence in the Kanosh Basin. This observation is congruent with previous interpretations of the depositional setting of the Kanosh Shale as a shallow water lagoon that supported the deposition of carbonate hardgrounds.Four new taxa are described: Busphaeridium vermiculatum n. gen., n. sp.; Digitoglomus minutum n. gen., n. sp.; Turpisphaera heteromorpha n. gen., n. sp.; and Vermimarginata barbata n. gen., n. sp. In addition, the abundance of operculate forms has enabled the revision and a new emendation of the genus Dicommopalla and clarification of the “opalla” complex. We also propose new and revised suprageneric taxa that emphasize inferred biological differences among acritarch genera. The Sphaeromorphitae subgroup is emended to include forms lacking sculptural elements. Two new informal subgroups are proposed: the Superornamenti and the Operculate Acritarchs. Cryptospores are abundant throughout the sections studied and they appear to be more closely related to the late Cambrian Agamachates Taylor and Strother than to Darriwilian and younger Ordovician cryptospores from Gondwana.

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