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Stylonurine eurypterids from the Strud locality (Upper Devonian, Belgium): new insights into the ecology of freshwater sea scorpions

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 January 2019

James C Lamsdell Open the ORCID record for James C Lamsdell [Opens in a new window] ,
Linda Lagebro ,
Gregory D Edgecombe ,
Graham E Budd  and
Pierre Gueriau
James C Lamsdell*
Affiliation:
Department of Geology and Geography, West Virginia University, 98 Beechurst Avenue, Morgantown, WV 26505, USA
Linda Lagebro
Affiliation:
Department of Earth Sciences, Palaeobiology, Uppsala University, Villavägen 16, Uppsala SE-752 36, Sweden
Gregory D Edgecombe
Affiliation:
Department of Earth Sciences, The Natural History Museum, Cromwell Road, London SW7 5BD, UK
Graham E Budd
Affiliation:
Department of Earth Sciences, Palaeobiology, Uppsala University, Villavägen 16, Uppsala SE-752 36, Sweden
Pierre Gueriau
Affiliation:
Institute of Earth Sciences, University of Lausanne, Géopolis, Lausanne CH-1015, Switzerland
*
Email: james.lamsdell@mail.wvu.edu
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Abstract

The Upper Famennian (Upper Devonian) Strud locality has yielded very abundant and diversified flora as well as vertebrate and arthropod faunas. The arthropod fauna, mostly recovered from fine shales deposited in a calm, confined floodplain habitat including temporary pools, has delivered a putative insect and various crustaceans including eumalacostracans and notostracan, spinicaudatan and anostracan branchiopods. Here we present the Strud eurypterids, consisting of semi-articulated juvenile specimens assigned to Hardieopteridae recovered from the pool and floodplain deposits, as well as larger isolated fragments of potential adults recovered from stratigraphically lower, coarser dark sandy layers indicative of a higher-energy fluvial environment. The Strud fossils strongly suggest that, as proposed for some Carboniferous eurypterids, juvenile freshwater eurypterids inhabited sheltered nursery pools and migrated to higher-energy river systems as they matured.

Keywords

FamennianHardieopteridaefloodplain habitatstemporary poolsjuvenile eurypteridsnursery
Type
Original Article
Information
Geological Magazine , Volume 156 , Issue 10 , October 2019 , pp. 1708 - 1714
Copyright
© Cambridge University Press 2019 

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