Semadiscus

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Semadiscus
Temporal range: Lower Botomian
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Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Trilobita
Order: Agnostida
Suborder: Eodiscina
Superfamily: Eodiscoidea
Family: Weymouthiidae
Genus:Semadiscus
Romanenko, 1978
species

Semadiscus is an extinct genus from a well-known class of fossil marine arthropods, the trilobites. It has been collected from the Lower Cambrian (early Botomian) of Canada (Newfoundland), Russia (Siberia, Gorno-Altaysk), and the United States (New York State). Only the headshield (or cephalon) is known, and it may well be that it would be better to include it in Serrodiscus .[ according to whom? ]

A genus is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms, as well as viruses, in biology. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial nomenclature, the genus name forms the first part of the binomial species name for each species within the genus.

Fossil Preserved remains or traces of organisms from a past geological age

A fossil is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserved in amber, hair, petrified wood, oil, coal, and DNA remnants. The totality of fossils is known as the fossil record.

Arthropod phylum of animals

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. Arthropods are characterized by their jointed limbs and cuticle made of chitin, often mineralised with calcium carbonate. The arthropod body plan consists of segments, each with a pair of appendages. The rigid cuticle inhibits growth, so arthropods replace it periodically by moulting. Arthopods are bilaterally symmetrical and their body possesses an external skeleton. Some species have wings.

Description

Like all Agnostida, Semadiscus is diminutive. Like all Weymouthiidae, Semadiscus lacks eyes and rupture lines (or sutures). The cephalon is semi-elliptical. The central raised area (or glabella) tapers forward, and the space between its front and the furrow that defines the border is as wide as the frontal border. It carries a stout backward-directed spine that is as long and one eighth as wide as the glabella. The border is narrow (about ⅛× the length of the cephalon excluding the spine) but only half as wide at the back corners of the cephalon (or genal angles). The articulate middle part of the body (or thorax) and tailshield (or pygidium) are unknown. [1]

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<i>Thoracocare</i>

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<i>Tchernyshevioides</i>

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<i>Serrodiscus</i>

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References

  1. Whittington, H. B. (1997). Volume 1 – Trilobita – Introduction, Order Agnostida, Order Redlichiida. Treatise on Invertebrate Paleontology. Part O, Revised. pp. 394–398.