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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 third and shortest period of the Paleozoic Era, and the third of twelve periods of the Phanerozoic Eon. 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 extinct marine 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 trilobites disappeared in the mass extinction at the end of the Permian about 251.9 million years ago. Trilobites were among the most successful of all early animals, existing in oceans for almost 270 million years, with over 22,000 species having been described.
John William Salter was an English naturalist, geologist, and palaeontologist.
Dalmanites is a genus of trilobite in the order Phacopida. They lived from the Late Ordovician to Middle Devonian.
Isotelus is a genus of asaphid trilobites from the Middle and Late Ordovician Period, fairly common in the northeastern United States, northwest Manitoba, southwestern Quebec and southeastern Ontario.
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.
Crotalocephalus is a genus of trilobites that lived from the Late Silurian to the Early Devonian. Its remains have been found in Asia, Australia, Africa, and Europe.
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.
Acernaspis is an extinct genus of trilobite that is known from the Silurian. It contains two species, A. elliptifrons, and A. salmoensis. It is sometimes found preserved in burrows of various forms, sometimes in association with multiple moults, suggesting that it used tunnels as refuges whilst in its vulnerable moulting stage.
Didrepanon is a trilobite in the order Phacopida, that existed during the upper Silurian in what is now England. It was described by Philip D. Lane in 1971, and the type species is Didrepanon falcatum. The type locality was in Sedgley.
Distyrax is a genus of trilobites in the order Phacopida, that existed during the lower Silurian in what is now Greenland. It was described by Philip D. Lane in 1988, and the type species is Distyrax peeli. It also contains the species, Distyrax cooperi. The type locality was the Odins Fjord Formation.
Selkirkia is a genus of predatory, tubicolous priapulid worms known from the Middle Cambrian Burgess Shale, Ogygopsis Shale, Puncoviscana Formation and the Early Ordovician Fezouata 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.
Ptychagnostus is a member of the agnostida that lived during the Cambrian period. Ptychagnostidae generally do not exceed one centimetre in length. Their remains are rarely found in empty tubes of the polychaete worm Selkirkia. The genus probably ranged throughout the water column. It has two glabellar lobes, and three pygidial lobes.
Bumastus is an extinct genus of corynexochid trilobites which existed from the Early Ordovician period to the Late Silurian period. They were relatively large trilobites, reaching a length of 6 in (15 cm). They were distinctive for their highly globular, smooth-surfaced exoskeleton. They possessed well-developed, large compound eyes and were believed to have dwelled in shallow-water sediments in life.
Pauline is a fossil genus of ostracods from the Silurian. Genus contains two species: Pauline avibella found in 425-million-year-old rocks in the Herefordshire Lagerstätte in England near the Welsh Border and Pauline nivisis, known from the Lower Silurian Pentamerus Bjerge Formation of north Greenland.
Styginidae is a family of trilobite in the order Corynexochida. Fossils of the various genera are found in marine strata throughout the world, aged from Ordovician up until the family's extinction during the Silurian.
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.
Perryus is a genus of phacopid trilobites that lived in what are now Canada, Greenland, and Siberia from the early Silurian to the middle Silurian from 438 to 430 mya, existing for approximately 8 million years.
Dudleyaspis is an extinct genus of Lower to Middle Devonian odontopleurid trilobites that lived in a shallow sea that lay between Euramerica and Gondwana. It was named in 1949 by Prantl & Pribyl.
References
- ↑ Lane, P. D. "New trilobites from the Silurian of Northeast Greenland, with a note on a trilobite faunas in pure limestones." Palaeontology 15 (1972): 336-364.
- ↑ Available Generic Names for Trilobites P. A. Jell & J. M. Adrain.
