Meteoraspis Temporal range: | |
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Meteoraspis metra | |
Scientific classification | |
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Genus: | Meteoraspis Resser, 1935, non Janvier, 1981, (a jawless fish) |
Type species | |
Ptychoparia metra Walcott, 1890 | |
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Synonyms | |
Meteraspis, Greylockia, Coleopachys |
Meteoraspis is an extinct genus of ptychopariid trilobites of the family Tricrepicephalidae. The various species lived from 501 to 497 million years ago during the Dresbachian faunal stage of the late Cambrian Period. [1] Fossils of Meteoraspis are characteristic of Late Cambrian strata in North America, [2] though they are found in Late Cambrian strata elsewhere in the world, such as M. nevensis from Victoria Land, Antarctica. [3]
The outline of the exoskeleton of Meteoraspis is an elongate, slightly inverted egg shaped though almost ovate, widest at the tip of the genal spines and 1.6× as long as wide. The headshield (or cephalon) is highly vaulted. The well-defined central raised area (or glabella) is convex, elongate tapering, with a rounded front, and has only one furrow, crossing it near the back of the cephalon, defining the occipital ring. A node may be present on the occipital ring. The remaining parts of the cephalon, called fixed and free cheeks (or fixigenae and librigenae) are upsloping. 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 the margin. From the back of the eyes the sutures follow a lazy S-curve, diverging first more outward and near the margin more backward, cutting the posterior margin within the inner bend of the spine (or opisthoparian sutures). Uniquely, the furrow parallel to the margin (or border furrow) has 2 not very noticeable pits in front of the glabella, and rarely a very faint 3rd median pit. There are no ridges that connect the eye to the glabella. The medium-sized eyes (over ⅓× the length of the glabella) are slightly behind the middle of the glabella. Genal angle ending in short spines extending backward about one thorax segment. The articulating middle part of the body (or thorax) has 13 segments. The axis is convex, and less than ½× as wide as each of the so-called pleurae to its sides. Segments pointed sideways with a rounded front (a shape called falcate). The tailshield (or pygidium) is about ½× as wide as the cephalon, almost twice as wide as long, excluding the two flat, shark tooth shaped, widely spaced spines. The axis in the pygidium is 1¼× longer than wide, with almost parallel sides, almost reaching the rear margin, with 3 or 4 axial rings; 3 sets of interpleural grooves and pleural furrows ending at distance of the margin. There is no furrow that would define a border in the pygidium. [4]
Species of the related genus Tricrepicephalus can be differentiated from those of Meteoraspis by having three equally prominent pits in the anterior border furrow, a much less vaulted cephalon, with spines reaching at least to the third thorax segment, 12 thorax segments and two long, tubular, curved pygidial spines that are reminiscent of the pincers of an earwig. [4]
Philippe Janvier assigned Cephalaspis gigas, an Early Devonian osteostracan agnathan with a tremendously wide headshield, to the newly erected genus Meteoraspis in 1981. This name however, was already used by Resser in 1935 for a trilobite. In 1987 the osteostracan genus was renamed to Parameteoraspis. [5] [6]
M. etheridgei occurs together with Eugonocare tessellatum, Corynexochus plumula, Mindycrusta oepiki, Innitagnostus inexpectans, Peratagnostus, and Pseudagnostus idalis (all trilobites), Acrothele, Orbithele, Quadrisonia, Anabolotreta tegula, Anabolotreta sp., Dactylotreta redunca, Dactylotreta sp., Linnarssonia, Neotreta, Picnotreta sp., Picnotreta debilis, Stilpnotreta magna, Treptotreta sp., Treptotreta jucunda, Dictyonina, Micromitra modesta and Micromitra sp. (all brachiopods). [7]
Redlichiida is an order of trilobites, a group of extinct marine arthropods. Species assigned to the order Redlichiida are among the first trilobites to appear in the fossil record, about halfway during the Lower Cambrian. Due to the difficulty to relate sediments in different areas, there remains some discussion, but among the earliest are Fallotaspis, and Lemdadella, both belonging to this order. The first representatives of the orders Corynexochida and Ptychopariida also appear very early on and may prove to be even earlier than any redlichiid species. In terms of anatomical comparison, the earliest redlichiid species are probably ancestral to all other trilobite orders and share many primitive characters. The last redlichiid trilobites died out before the end of the Middle Cambrian.
Phacopidae is a family of phacopid trilobites that ranges from the Lower Ordovician to the Upper Devonian, with representatives in all paleocontinents.
Dalmanites is a genus of trilobite in the order Phacopida. They lived from the Late Ordovician to Middle Devonian.
Paradoxides is a genus of large to very large trilobite found throughout the world during the Middle Cambrian period. One record-breaking specimen of Paradoxides davidis, described by John William Salter in 1863, is 37 cm (15 in). The cephalon was semicircular with free cheeks ending in long, narrow, recurved spines. Eyes were crescent shaped providing an almost 360° view, but only in the horizontal plane. Its elongate thorax was composed of 19–21 segments and adorned with longish, recurved pleural spines. Its pygidium was comparatively small. Paradoxides is a characteristic Middle-Cambrian trilobite of the 'Atlantic' (Avalonian) fauna. Avalonian rocks were deposited near a small continent called Avalonia in the Paleozoic Iapetus Ocean. Avalonian beds are now in a narrow strip along the East Coast of North America, and in Europe.
Emuellidae are a small family of trilobites, a group of extinct marine arthropods, that lived during the late Lower Cambrian of the East Gondwana supercontinent, in what are today South-Australia and Antarctica.
Huntoniatonia is genus of trilobites, an extinct group of marine arthropods of average to large size.
Triarthrus is a genus of Upper Ordovician ptychopariid trilobite found in New York, Ohio, Kentucky, and Indiana, eastern and northern Canada, China and Scandinavia. It is the last of the Olenid trilobites, a group which flourished in the Cambrian period. The specimens of T. eatoni that are found in the Beecher's Trilobite Bed, Rome, New York area are exquisitely preserved showing soft body parts in iron pyrite. Pyrite preservation has given scientists a rare opportunity to examine the gills, walking legs, antennae, digestive systems, and eggs of trilobites, which are rarely preserved. Triarthrus is therefore commonly used in science texts to illustrate trilobite anatomy and physiology.
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 2⁄3× 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.
Alokistocaridae is a family of ptychopariid trilobites that lived from the Botomian epoch of the Early Cambrian until the Late Cambrian. Alokistocarids were particle feeders and left small furrows which are occasionally preserved. Their remains are found worldwide. Elrathia kingii, one of the most collected trilobites in the world, is a typical alokistocarid.
Ptychoparia is a genus of ptychopariid trilobites, and is the type genus of the family Ptychopariidae, and the order Ptychopariida.
Odontochile is a genus of trilobites in the order Phacopida, family Dalmanitidae.
Eodiscina is trilobite suborder. The Eodiscina first developed near the end of the Lower Cambrian period and became extinct at the end of the Middle Cambrian. Species are tiny to small, and have a thorax of two or three segments. Eodiscina includes six families classified under one superfamily, Eodiscoidea.
Morocconus is an extinct genus from a well-known class of fossil marine arthropods, the trilobites. It is still debated if it lived at the very end of the Lower Cambrian or at the very beginning of the Middle Cambrian. Morocconus notabilis is the only known species in this genus.
Thoracocare is a minute to very small trilobite, that lived during part of the Middle Cambrian in what are today the states of Idaho, Nevada and Utah. It is the only trilobite known with just two thorax segments outside most members of the Agnostida order. It can be distinguished from Agnostida by the very wide subquadrate glabella, parallel-side or widening forward in the largest specimen, with the full front side touching the border. Two species are known, one, T. idahoensis, only from pygidia.
Psychopyge is a genus of trilobite, that lived during the upper Emsian and has been found in Germany and Morocco. It is characterized by the swordlike extension from the front of the head.
Cedaria is an extinct genus of trilobites from the late Cambrian.
Kendallina is a genus of parabolinoidid 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 Late 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 Late 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 497 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°.
Viaphacops is a genus of trilobites in the order Phacopida, family Phacopidae, that lived during the Middle Devonian, and is known from North and South America, Asia.