Taklamakania

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Taklamakania
Temporal range: late Caradoc
Taklamakania tarimensis.JPG
T. tarimensis
Scientific classification Red Pencil Icon.png
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Trilobita
Order: Asaphida
Family: Raphiophoridae
Genus: Taklamakania
Zhang, 1979
Type species
Taklamakania tarimensis
Species
  • T. tarimensis
  • T. tarimheensis
  • T. xinjiangensis

Taklamakania is a genus of asaphid trilobites of the family Raphiophoridae that lived during the late Caradoc of Inner Mongolia, China. Like all raphiophorids it is blind, with a headshield (or cephalon) that is subsemicircular, carrying genal spines and a forward directed spine on the central raised area (or glabella), with the front of the glabella inflated and the natural fracture lines (or sutures) of the cephalon coinciding with its margin. It is easily distinguished from most other raphiophorids by the 3 thorax segments. Pseudampyxina , Nanshanaspis , and Kongqiangheia also have only 3 such segments, but all three lack the frontal spine that emanates from the glabellum of Taklamakania species. All other raphiophorid genera have at least 5 thorax segments. Three species, T. tarimensis, T. tarimheensis, and T. xinjiangensis, have been assigned to this genus so far. [1]

Contents

Etymology

The generic name Taklamakania refers to the Taklamakan desert, the area where its fossils were found. The species epithet tarimensis is also a geographic derivation in reference to the Tarim basin, which includes the Taklamakan desert. [1]

Evolution

Adult T. tarimensis are almost indistinguishable from juvenile Ampyxina powelli , and it is assumed that Taklamakania developed from Ampyxina through paedomorphosis. [1]

Junior homonym

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Kongqiaoheia rotundata is an asaphid trilobites of the family Raphiophoridae that lived during the late Caradoc of Inner Mongolia, China. K. rotundata was originally grouped with the so-called Taklamakaniinae, a paraphyletic group of tiny, dwarfed raphiophorids that lived in a deepwater environment in what is now the Tarim Basin, including Pseudampyxina, Nanshanaspis, and Taklamakania. Like these other genera, K. rotundata has only three thoracic segments, probably due to paedomorphic dwarfism: other raphiophorid trilobites have at minimum five thoracic segments.

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

Nanshanaspis is a genus of asaphid trilobites of the family Raphiophoridae that lived during the late Caradoc of Inner Mongolia, China. Like all raphiophorids it is blind, with a headshield that is subsemicircular, carrying genal spines and a forward directed spine on the central raised area, with the front of the glabella inflated and the natural fracture lines of the cephalon coinciding with its margin. It is easily distinguished from most other raphiophorids by the 3 thorax segments. Pseudampyxina, Taklamakania, and Kongqiangheia also have only 3 such segments, while all other raphiophorid genera have at least 5 thorax segments, leading to the erection of the subfamily "Taklamakaniinae" to contain these four genera. "Taklamakaniinae" was dissolved and its members absorbed into Raphiophorinae when further study showed the close similarities the "taklamakaniids" had to the juvenile forms of various raphiophorinids. Specimens of Nanshanaspis, for example, closely resemble juveniles of Globampyx trinucleoides.

References

  1. 1 2 3 Zhou, Z.; Webby, B.D.; Yuan, W. (1995). "Ordovician trilobites from the Yingan Formation of northwestern Tarim, Xinjiang, northwestern China". Alcheringa: An Australasian Journal of Palaeontology. 19 (1): 47–72. doi:10.1080/03115519508619098.
  2. Medvedev, G.S. (2006). "To the Systematics and Nomenclature of Tenebrionid Beetles of the Tribes Phaleriini, Lachnogyini, Klewariini, and Blaptini (Coleoptera, Tenebrionidae)" (PDF). Entomological Review. 86 (7): 820–839. doi:10.1134/S0013873806070062. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2015-12-22.