Cedaria

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Cedaria
Temporal range: Dresbachian
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Cedaria minor CRF.jpg
Cedaria minor, 11mm
Scientific classification
Kingdom:
Phylum:
Class:
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Family:
Cedariidae
Genus:
Cedaria

Walcott, 1924
species
  • C. prolificaWalcott, 1924 (type species) [1]
  • C. bellaLochman & Hu, 1962
  • C. brevifrons Palmer, 1960
  • C. cajonensisRusconi, 1958
  • C. eurycheilosPalmer, 1954
  • C. gaspensis Rasetti, 1946
  • C. milleri Resser, 1937
  • C. minor(Walcott, 1916) = Asaphiscus minor
  • C. nixoniaLochman & Duncan, 1944
  • C. tennesseensisWalcott, 1925
  • C. tumicephalaRobison, 1988

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 half the length of the body. Cedaria lived during the early part of the Upper Cambrian (Dresbachian), and is especially abundant in the Weeks Formation. [2]

Contents

Description

Cedaria has an ovate outline of 1 centimetre or 0.39 inches long on average (maximum size 2.5 cm) and ¾ as wide between the tips of the genal spines. The headshield (or cephalon) is parabolic in shape with a well defined wide, and typically darker colored border of about 10% of the glabellar length or equal to a thorax segment. The well-defined central raised area (or glabella) tapers slightly forward with a rounded front, but lateral furrows are weakly defined. The backward occipital ring is well defined. The distance between the glabella and the border (or preglabellar field) is ±¼ as long as the glabella or 2× the width of the border. The eyes are kidney-shaped, ±¼ as long as the glabella and midlength of the glabella, and close to the glabella (at ⅓ of the width of the glabella). The remaining parts of the cephalon, called fixed and free cheeks (or fixigenae and librigenae) are flat. The fracture lines (or sutures) that in moulting separate the librigenae from the fixigenae are divergent just in front of the eyes, becoming parallel near the border furrow and slightly convergent at margin. From the back of the eyes the sutures bends outward and slightly backward, curving backward at the lateral border furrow and cutting the posterior margin in the inner bend of the spine (or opisthoparian sutures). The articulating middle part of the body (or thorax) has 7 segments, the outer tips bending backwards, pointed and darker. The tailshield (or pygidium) is semicircular, straight or almost indented and has a long, low, tapering axis with 5 or 6 rings, and 4 or 5 pleural furrows. The border in the pygidium is as wide as in the cephalon and is also often darker, but the border furrow is very shallow or absent. [2] [3]

Taxonomy

Bonneterrina, Carinamala, Cedaria, Cedarina, Paracedaria, Jimachongia and Vernaculina together comprise the family Cedariidae. [4]

Reassigned species

Distribution

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<i>Paradoxides</i> Extinct genus of trilobites

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<i>Dikelocephalus</i> Genus of trilobites

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<i>Meteoraspis</i>

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<i>Conocoryphe</i>

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<i>Tricrepicephalus</i>

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°.

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References

  1. Palmer, A.R. (1960). "Glyptagnostus and associated trilobites in the United States". Geological Survey Professional Paper. 374: F1–F49.
  2. 1 2 3 Peters, S.E. (2003). "Paleontology and taphonomy of the Upper Weeks Formation (Cambrian, Upper Marjuman, Cedaria Zone) of western Utah" (PDF). Unpublished PhD dissertation. University of Chicago.
  3. Moore, R.C. (1959). Arthropoda I - Arthropoda General Features, Proarthropoda, Euarthropoda General Features, Trilobitomorpha. Treatise on Invertebrate Paleontology. Vol. Part O. Boulder, Colorado/Lawrence, Kansas: Geological Society of America/University of Kansas Press. pp. O300–O301. ISBN   0-8137-3015-5.
  4. Whittington, H.B.; Chatterton, B.D.E.; Speyer, S.E.; Fortey, R.A.; Owens, R.M.; Chang, W.T.; Dean, W.T.; Jell, P.A.; Laurie, J.R.; Palmer, A.R.; Repina, L.N.; Rushton, A.W.A.; Shergold, J.H.; Clarkson, E.N.K.; Wilmot, N.V.; Kelley, S.R.A. (1997). Treatise on Invertebrate Paleontology . Vol. Part O, Revised, Volume 1 – Trilobita – Introduction, Order Agnostida, Order Redlichiida. p. 224.
  5. Tasch, Paul, 1951, Fauna and Paleoecology of the Upper Cambrian Warrior Formation of Central Pennsylvania, Journal of Paleontology, Vol. 25, No. 3, pp. 275-306, pls. 44-47, May 1951 abstract