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Agnostida is an order of arthropod which first developed near the end of the Early Cambrian period and thrived during the Middle Cambrian. They are present in the Lower Cambrian fossil record along with trilobites from the Redlichiida, Corynexochida, and Ptychopariida orders. The last agnostids went extinct in the Late Ordovician.
The Ordovician is a geologic period and system, the second of six periods of the Paleozoic Era. The Ordovician spans 41.6 million years from the end of the Cambrian Period 485.4 million years ago (Mya) to the start of the Silurian Period 443.8 Mya.
The Silurian is a geologic period and system spanning 24.6 million years from the end of the Ordovician Period, at 443.8 million years ago (Mya), to the beginning of the Devonian Period, 419.2 Mya. The Silurian is the shortest period of the Paleozoic Era. As with other geologic periods, the rock beds that define the period's start and end are well identified, but the exact dates are uncertain by a few million years. The base of the Silurian is set at a series of major Ordovician–Silurian extinction events when up to 60% of marine genera were wiped out.
Trilobites are a group of extinct marine artiopodan 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 300 million years.
Marrella is an extinct genus of arthropod known from the middle Cambrian Burgess Shale of British Columbia. It is the most common animal represented in the Burgess Shale.
The phragmocone is the chambered portion of the shell of a cephalopod. It is divided by septa into camerae.
Ptychopariida is a large, heterogeneous order of trilobite containing some of the most primitive species known. The earliest species occurred in the second half of the Lower Cambrian, and the last species did not survive the Ordovician–Silurian extinction event.
Dalmanites is a genus of trilobite in the order Phacopida. They lived from the Late Ordovician to Middle Devonian.
In the geological timescale, the Llandovery epoch occurred at the beginning of the Silurian period. The Llandoverian epoch follows the massive Ordovician-Silurian extinction events, which led to a large decrease in biodiversity and an opening up of ecosystems.
Diacalymene is a genus of trilobite from the order Phacopida, suborder Calymenina. It includes the species D. ouzregui, D. clavicula, D. diademata and D. gabrielsi. It lived in the Ordovician and Silurian periods.
Calymene blumenbachii, sometimes erroneously spelled blumenbachi, is a species of trilobite discovered in the limestone quarries of the Wren's Nest in Dudley, England. Nicknamed the Dudley Bug or Dudley Locust by 18th-century quarrymen it became a symbol of the town and featured on the Dudley County Borough Council coat-of-arms. Calymene blumenbachii is commonly found in Silurian rocks and is thought to have lived in the shallow waters of the Silurian, in low-energy reefs. This particular species of Calymene is unique to the Wenlock series in England, and comes from the Wenlock Limestone Formation in Much Wenlock and the Wren's Nest in Dudley. These sites seem to yield trilobites more readily than any other areas on the Wenlock Edge, and the rock here is dark grey as opposed to yellowish or whitish as it appears on other parts of the Edge, just a few miles away, in Church Stretton and elsewhere. This suggests local changes in the environment in which the rock was deposited.
Meteoraspis is an extinct genus of ptychopariid trilobites of the family Tricrepicephalidae. The various species lived from 501 to 490 million years ago during the Dresbachian faunal stage of the late Cambrian Period. Fossils of Meteoraspis are characteristic of Late Cambrian strata in North America, though they are found in Late Cambrian strata elsewhere in the world, such as M. nevensis from Victoria Land, Antarctica.
Balizoma is a genus of trilobites from the family Encrinuridae established by David J. Holloway in 1980. It has only been found in rocks of Silurian age. Its type species, B. variolaris, is currently the only named species of the genus, and is found in England. The neotype of B. variolaris was collected from the Much Wenlock Limestone Formation at Dudley, West Midlands. That specimen was first illustrated in Sir Roderick Impey Murchison's classic book, The Silurian System. B. variolaris was the original "strawberry-headed" trilobite of Dudley, so-named because of its nodular glabellar tubercles, and well known to early trilobite collectors. Additional species were originally assigned to Balizoma, but were subsequently placed in other encrinurine genera.
An arthropod is an invertebrate animal having an exoskeleton, a segmented body, and paired jointed appendages. Arthropods form the phylum Euarthropoda, which includes insects, arachnids, myriapods, and crustaceans. The term Arthropoda as originally proposed refers to a proposed grouping of Euarthropods and the phylum Onychophora.
Selkirkia is a genus of predatory, tubicolous priapulid worms known from the Middle Cambrian Burgess Shale, Ogygopsis Shale and Puncoviscana Formation. 142 specimens of Selkirkia are known from the Greater Phyllopod bed, where they comprise 0.27% of the community. In the Burgess Shale, 20% of the tapering, organic-walled tubes are preserved with the worm inside them, whereas the other 80% are empty. Whilst alive, the tubes were probably vertical, whereas trilobite-occupied tubes are horizontal.
The cephalon is the head section of an arthropod. It is a tagma, i.e., a specialized grouping of arthropod segments. The word cephalon derives from the Greek κεφαλή (kephalē), meaning "head".
Arcticalymene is a genus of trilobites found in Silurian-aged marine strata of Arctic Canada and Central Victoria, Australia. The Canadian species are named after each of the Sex Pistols: A. cooki, A. jonesi, A. matlocki, A. rotteni and A. viciousi, all named by Adrian and Edgecombe in 1997.
Paleontology in Wisconsin refers to paleontological research occurring within or conducted by people from the U.S. state of Wisconsin. The state has fossils from the Precambrian, much of the Paleozoic, and the later part of the Cenozoic. Most of the Paleozoic rocks are marine in origin. Because of the thick blanket of Pleistocene glacial sediment that covers the rock strata in most of the state, Wisconsin’s fossil record is relatively sparse. In spite of this, certain Wisconsin paleontological occurrences provide exceptional insights concerning the history and diversity of life on Earth.
Coronocephalus is an extinct genus of trilobites in the Phacopid family Encrinuridae. Species are from the Silurian of Australia and Japan, and from the Silurian and Ordovician of China.
The Waukesha Biota refers to the biotic assemblage of the Konservat-Lagerstätte of Early Silurian age within the Brandon Bridge Formation in Waukesha County and Franklin, Milwaukee County, Wisconsin. It is known for the exceptional preservation of its diverse, soft-bodied and lightly skeletonized taxa, including many major taxa found nowhere else in strata of similar age.
References
- ↑ Sandford, Andrew C.; Holloway, David J. (2006). "Early Silurian phacopide trilobites from central Victoria, Australia" (PDF). Memoirs of the Museum of Victoria. 63 (2): 215–255.[ permanent dead link ]
- ↑ Chatterton, B. D. E.; Collins, D. H.; Ludvigsen, R. (2003). "Cryptic behaviour in trilobites: Cambrian and Silurian examples from Canada, and other related occurrences". In Lane, P. D; Siveter, D. J; Fortey, R. A (eds.). Trilobites and Their Relatives. Special Papers in Palaeontology. 70. The Palaeontological Association. pp. 157–173. ISBN 9780901702814.
