Beckwithia | |
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Beckwithia typa collected in the Weeks Formation, Utah | |
Scientific classification | |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Arthropoda |
(unranked): | † Artiopoda |
(unranked): | † Vicissicaudata |
Order: | † Aglaspidida |
Genus: | † Beckwithia Resser, 1931 |
Species: | †B. typa |
Binomial name | |
†Beckwithia typa Resser, 1931 | |
Beckwithia is an extinct genus of average to large size (5 centimetres or 2.0 inches to 12 centimetres or 4.7 inches), soft bodied artiopodan arthropods that lived during the late Middle and Upper Cambrian on the former paleocontinent Laurentia, in what are now Utah and Wisconsin. It has an inverted egg-shape, with a semi-circular head, 11 abdominal segments and a tail spine. It is a typical member of the group Aglaspidida.
Beckwithia was named after Frank Beckwith, editor and publisher of the Millard County Chronicle of Delta, Utah in the early to middle 1900s, who had a passion for trilobites. [1]
Beckwithia has been collected from the Middle and Upper Cambrian of Utah (Weeks Formation, House Range, Millard County) and from the Franconian (in North-America called Sunwaptan) of Wisconsin.
Beckwithia was previously placed in a separate family, the Beckwithiidae, but it has now been established that the defining character (that the terminal segments appeared to be fused) is actually an artifact. [2]
The outline of the exoskeleton of Beckwithia is an inverted egg-shape with a stout sword-like tail spine or telson. The dorsal shield covering the cephalothorax (or prosoma) is semi-circular, with the margin curving smoothly from the front to an acute, but rather small genal spine at the outside and the back. The front and side margin is bordered by a flatted and undecorated zone of almost constant length/width. The area within that band is densely covered in pustules. Two distinctly raised eyes that are circular to oval are located at the outer rim of what could be compared to a trilobite glabella, with a strongly effaced outline and lobes. The abdomen (or opisthosoma) consists of 11 segments (or possibly sometimes 10 or 12) perpendicular to the midline, that terminate to the sides in small spines that angle to the back. Each segment carries a spine at midline too that is directed backward, a character that distinguishes Beckwithia from other Aglaspidid genera. Only one species, Beckwithia typa, is currently recognized. [2]
Redlichia is a genus of redlichiid trilobite in the family Redlichiidae, with large to very large species. Fossils of various species are found in Lower Cambrian (Toyonian)-aged marine strata from China, Korea, Pakistan, the Himalayas, Iran, Spain, southern Siberia, and Antarctica, and from Middle Cambrian (Ordian)-aged marine strata of Australia.
Aglaspidida is an extinct order of aquatic arthropods that were once regarded as primitive chelicerates. However, anatomical comparisons demonstrate that the aglaspidids cannot be accommodated within the chelicerates, and that they lie instead within the Artiopoda, thus placing them closer to the trilobites. Aglaspidida contains the subgroups Aglaspididae and Tremaglaspididae, which are distinguished by the presence of acute/spinose genal angles and a long spiniform tailspine in the Aglaspididae.
Dikelocephalus is a genus of very large trilobites of up to 50 cm (20 in) long, that lived during the last 3 million years of the Cambrian (Sunwaptan). Their fossils are commonly found as disarticulated sclerites, in the upper Mississippi Valley and in Canada (Alberta). The exoskeleton is rounded anteriorly, with the thorax and sides of the tailshield slightly tapering to about ⅔× of the width across the base of the spines at the back of the headshield. At the side corners of the pygidium there may be triangular or hooked spines, pointing backwards, while between the spines the posterior margin is at a 30-75° angle with the lateral margin, gently convex or nearly straight. If pygidial spines are lacking, the margin is gradually rounded. The thorax has 12 segments.
Wanneria is an extinct genus from a well-known class of fossil marine arthropods, the trilobites. It lived during the later part of the Botomian stage, which lasted from approximately 524 to 518.5 million years ago. This faunal stage was part of the Cambrian Period. Wanneria walcottana is the only known species in this genus.
Buenellus higginsi is an average size trilobite, which lived during the Lower Cambrian period, in what is now North-West Greenland. It is a prominent member of the Sirius Passet fauna. Buenellus higginsi is the only known species in the genus Buenellus.
Nevadella is an extinct genus of trilobites, fossil marine arthropods, with species of average size. It lived during the late Atdabanian stage, which lasted from 530 to 524 million years ago during the early part of the Cambrian Period.
Weeksina is a genus of trilobites, an extinct group of marine arthropods. It lived during the Dresbachian faunal stage of the late Cambrian Period which lasted from 501 to 490 million years ago. Its calcified dorsal exoskeleton has an inverted egg-shape. Characteristics of this trilobite are the backward directed spine on the 8th of 10 segment of the articulated middle part of the body, and the second pair of furrows from the back on the raised central part of the headshield called glabella, which curve from inward to fully backward, almost isolating a pair of lobes, just in front of the occipital ring, that is defined by a furrow that crosses the entire width of the glabella. Weeksina is known only from the Weeks Formation at North Canyon, House Range, Millard County, Utah.
Asaphiscus is a genus of trilobite that lived in the Cambrian. Its remains have been found in Australia and North America, especially in Utah.
Ooedigera peeli is an extinct vetulicolian from the Early Cambrian of North Greenland. The front body was flattened horizontally, oval-shaped, likely bearing a reticulated or anastomosing pattern, and had 5 evenly-spaced gill pouches along the midline. The tail was also bulbous and flattened horizontally, but was divided into 7 plates connected by flexible membranes, allowing movement. Ooedigera likely swam by moving side-to-side like a fish. It may have lived in an oxygen minimum zone alongside several predators in an ecosystem based on chemosynthetic microbial mats, and was possibly a deposit or filter feeder living near the seafloor.
Aaveqaspis is a genus of small marine arthropods of unclear affiliation, that lived during the early Cambrian period. Fossil remains of Aaveqaspis were collected from the Lower Cambrian Sirius Passet fossil-Lagerstätte of North Greenland. Aaveqaspis looks like a soft eyeless trilobite with a weakly defined axis, a headshield with stubby genal spines, 5 thorax segments also ending in stubby genal spines, and a tailshield (pygidium) with a pair of massive tusk-like spines, and two smaller spines near the end of the axis. The only species presently known is A. inesoni.
Emucaris fava is an extinct species of soft-shelled trilobite-like arthropod of the nektaspid order from the Lower Cambrian of South Australia. It is the only species classified under the genus Emucaris.
Kangacaris is an extinct genus of soft-shelled trilobite-like arthropod of the nektaspid order from the Lower Cambrian (Botomian). K. zhangi is known from South Australia, and K. shui from South-West China.
Emigrantia is an extinct genus of trilobites, fossil marine arthropods, of small to average size. It lived during the Toyonian stage, in what is today the South-Western United States. Emigrantia can easily be distinguished from other trilobites by the sturdy but not inflated genal spines, that are attached at midlength of the cephalon, in combination with effaced features of the raised axial area of the head shield.
Cedaria is a small, rather flat trilobite with an oval outline, a headshield and tailshield of approximately the same size, 7 articulating segments in the middle part of the body and spines at the back edges of the headshield that reach halflength of the body. Cedaria lived during the early part of the Upper Cambrian (Dresbachian), and is especially abundant in the Weeks Formation.
Kendallina is a genus of trilobite with an inverted egg-shaped outline, a wide headshield, small eyes, small deflected spines, 12 thorax segments and a small, short tailshield. It lived during the Upper Cambrian in what are today Canada and the United States.
Orygmaspis is a genus of asaphid trilobite with an inverted egg-shaped outline, a wide headshield, small eyes, long genal spines, 12 spined thorax segments and a small, short tailshield, with four pairs of spines. It lived during the Upper Cambrian in what are today Canada and the United States.
Tricrepicephalus is an extinct genus of ptychopariid trilobites of the family Tricrepicephalidae with species of average size. Its species lived from 501 to 490 million years ago during the Dresbachian faunal stage of the late Cambrian Period. Fossils of Tricrepicephalus are widespread in Late Cambrian deposits in North America, but is also known from one location in South-America. Tricrepicephalus has an inverted egg-shaped exoskeleton, with three characteristic pits in the fold that parallels the margin of the headshield just in front of the central raised area. The articulating middle part of the body has 12 segments and the tailshield carries two long, tubular, curved pygidial spines that are reminiscent of earwig's pincers that rise backwards from the plain of the body at approximately 30°.
The Paradoxididae are a superfamily of trilobites, a group of extinct marine arthropods. They occurred during the late Lower Cambrian (Toyonian) and disappeared at the end of the Middle Cambrian.
Strabops is a genus of strabopid, an extinct group of arthropods. Strabops is known from a single specimen from the Late Cambrian of the Potosi Dolomite, Missouri, collected by a former professor, Arthur Thacher. It is classified in the family Strabopidae of the monotypic order Strabopida, a group closely related to the aglaspidids with uncertain affinities. The generic name is composed by the Ancient Greek words στραβός, meaning "squinting", and ὄψῐς, meaning "face".
Paleomerus is a genus of strabopid, a group of extinct arthropods. It has been found in deposits from the Cambrian period. It is classified in the family Strabopidae of the monotypic order Strabopida. It contains two species, P. hamiltoni from Sweden and P. makowskii from Poland. The generic name is composed by the Ancient Greek words παλαιός (palaiós), meaning "ancient", and μέρος (méros), meaning "part".