Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-2lccl Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-26T23:59:16.230Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

A new helcionelloid mollusk from the middle Cambrian Burgess Shale, Canada

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 July 2015

Simon Conway Morris  and
John S. Peel
Simon Conway Morris
Affiliation:
Department of Earth Sciences, Downing Street, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB2 3EQ, England,
John S. Peel
Affiliation:
Department of Earth Sciences (Palaeobiology), Uppsala University, Villavägen 16, Uppsala, SE-752 36, Sweden,
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Burgess Shale-type faunas provide unique insights into the Cambrian “explosion”. Their degree of representativeness of Cambrian marine life in general is, however, less easy to establish. One line of evidence is to consider only the skeletal component of a Burgess Shale-type fauna and compare that with a typical Cambrian assemblage. This paper describes a new species of helcionelloid mollusk (Totoralia reticulata n. sp.) from the middle Cambrian Burgess Shale of British Columbia. Whilst much rarer than the co-occurring smooth shelled helcionelloid Scenella amii, the strongly costate morphology of Totoralia reinforces comparisons with Cambrian shelly faunas. The extension of the range of Totoralia from Argentina to Canada adds support to the proposed derivation of the Precordillera terrane of Mendoza from Laurentia.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Paleontology , Volume 87 , Issue 6 , November 2013 , pp. 1067 - 1070
Copyright
Copyright © The Paleontological Society 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Babcock, L. E. and Peel, J. S. 2007. Palaeobiology, taphonomy, and stratigraphic significance of the trilobite Buenellus from the Sirius Passet biota, Cambrian of North Greenland. Memoirs of the Association of Australasian Palaeontologists, 34:401–418.Google Scholar
Babcock, L. E. and Robison, R. A. 1988. Taxonomy and paleobiology of some middle Cambrian Scenella (Cnidaria) and hyolithids (Mollusca) from western North America. The University of Kansas Paleontological Contributions, 121:1–22.Google Scholar
Babcock, L. E., Zhang, W-T., and Leslie, S. A. 2001. The Chengjiang biotas: Record of the early Cambrian diversification of life and clues to exceptional preservation of fossils. GSA Today, 11 (2):4–9.2.0.CO;2>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Benedetto, J. L., Vaccari, N. E., Waisfield, B. G., Sánchez, T. M., and Foglia, R. D. 2009. Cambrian and Ordovician biogeography of the South American margin of Gondwana and accreted terranes. Geological Society, London, Special Publications, 325:231–232.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bordonaro, O. L., Pratt, B. R., and Robledo, V. 2013. Systematic, morphometric and palaeobiogeographic study of Blainia gregaria Walcott, 1916 (Trilobita, Ptychopariida), middle Cambrian of the Precordillera of western Argentina. Geological Journal, 48:126–141.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Billings, E. 1872. On some new species of Palaeozoic fossils. The Canadian Naturalist, 6:213–222.Google Scholar
Brasier, M. D. 1984. Microfossils and small shelly fossils from the lower Cambrian Hyolithes limestone at Nuneaton, English Midlands. Geological Magazine, 121:229–253.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Briggs, D. E. G., Erwin, D. H., and Collier, F. J. 1994. The fossils of the Burgess Shale. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington D.C., 238p.Google Scholar
Butterfield, N. J. and Harvey, T. H. P. 2012. Small carbonaceous fossils (SCFs): A new measure of early Paleozoic paleobiology. Geology, 40:71–74.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Caron, J-B. and Jackson, D. A. 2008. Paleoecology of the Greater Phyllopod Bed community, Burgess Shale. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 258:222–256.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Clausen, S., Hou, X-G., Bergström, J., and Franzén, C. 2010. The absence of echinoderms from the lower Cambrian Chengjiang fauna: Palaeoecological and palaeogeographical implications. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 294:133–141.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cobbold, E. S. 1921. The Cambrian horizons of Comley (Shropshire) and their Brachiopoda, Pteropoda, Gasteropoda, etc. The Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society of London, 76:325–386.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Conway Morris, S. 1985. The middle Cambrian metazoan Wiwaxia corrugata (Matthew) from the Burgess Shale and Ogygopsis shale, British Columbia, Canada. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, 307:507–586.Google Scholar
Conway Morris, S. 1986. The community structure of the middle Cambrian Phyllopod bed (Burgess Shale). Palaeontology, 29:423–467.Google Scholar
Conway Morris, S. and Peel, J. S. 1995. Articulated halkieriids from the lower Cambrian of North Greenland and their role in early protostome evolution. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, B, 347:305–358.Google Scholar
Conway Morris, S. and Robison, R. A. 1982. The enigmatic medusoid Peytoia and a comparison of some Cambrian biotas. Journal of Paleontology, 56:116–122.Google Scholar
Cuvier, G. 1797. Tableau élementaire de l'histoire naturelle des animaux. Baudouin, Paris, 700p.Google Scholar
d'Orbigny, A. 1850. Prodrome de paléontologie stratigraphique universelle des animaux mollusques et rayonnés faisant suite au cours élémentaire de paléontologie, vol. 1. Victor Masson, Paris, 394p.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Evans, K. R. 1992. Marocella: Antarctic specimens of an enigmatic Cambrian animal. Journal of Paleontology, 66:558–562.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fletcher, T. P. and Collins, D. H. 2003. The Burgess Shale and associated Cambrian formations west of the Fossil Gully Fault Zone on Mount Stephen, British Columbia. Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences, 40:1823–1838.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gaines, R. R. and Droser, M. L. 2003. Paleoecology of the familiar trilobite Elrathia kingii: An early exaerobic zone inhabitant. Geology, 31:941–944.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Garson, D. E., Gaines, R. R., Droser, M. L., Liddell, W. D., and Sappenfield, A. 2012. Dynamic palaeoredox and exceptional preservation in the Cambrian Spence Shale. Lethaia, 45:164–177.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Geyer, G. 1986. Mittelkambrische Mollusken aus Marokko und Spanien. Senckenbergiana lethaea, 67:55–118.Google Scholar
Geyer, G. 1994. Middle Cambrian mollusks from Idaho and early conchiferan evolution. Bulletin New York State Museum, 481:69–86.Google Scholar
Grabau, A. W. and Shimer, H. W. 1909. North American Index-Fossils: Invertebrates, Vol. I. Seiler and Company, Lancaster, PA, 853pCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Harvey, T. H. P., Vélez, M. I., and Butterfield, N. J. 2012. Exceptionally preserved crustaceans from western Canada reveal a cryptic Cambrian radiation. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, U.S.A., 109:1589–1594.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Johnston, P. A., Kimberley, J. J., Collom, C. J., Powell, W. G., and Pollock, R. J. 2009. Palaeontology and depositional environments of ancient brine seeps in the middle Cambrian Burgess Shale at The Monarch, British Columbia, Canada. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 277:86–105.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Knight, J. B. 1941. Paleozoic gastropod genotypes. Geological Society of America Special Paper, 32:1–510.Google Scholar
Knight, J. B. and Yochelson, E. L. 1960. Monoplacophora, p. I77–I84. InMoore (ed.), R. C., Treatise on Invertebrate Paleontology, Pt. I, Mollusca 1.Geological Society of America and University of Kansas Press, Lawrence, Kansas.Google Scholar
Landing, E. and Narbonne, G. M. 1992. Scenella and “A chondrophorine (medusoid hydrozoan) from the basal Cambrian (Placentian) of Newfoundland”. Journal of Paleontology, 66:338.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mao, J.-R. and Zhao, Y.-L. 1994. Scenella of Kaili Fauna from Taijiang, Guizhou. Acta Palaeontologica Sinica, 33:325–328. (In Chinese)Google Scholar
Mao, J.-R., Zhao, Y.-L., and Huang, Y.-Z. 1993. Some Cambrian monoplacophorans from Taijang, Guizhou. Acta Micropaleontologica Sinica, 10:99–104. (In Chinese)Google Scholar
Matthew, G. F. 1886. Illustrations of the fauna of the St. John Group continued. No. III, Descriptions of new genera and species (including a description of a new species of Solenopleura by J.F. Whiteaves). Transactions of the Royal Society of China, section 4 (Papers for 1885), p. 29–84.Google Scholar
Matthew, G. F. 1899a. Preliminary notice of the Etcheminian fauna of Newfoundland. Bulletin of the Natural History Society of New Brunswick, 4:189–197.Google Scholar
Matthew, G. F. 1899b. The Etcheminian fauna of Smith Sound, Newfoundland. Transactions of the Royal Society of Canada, V (Section IV), p. 97–119.Google Scholar
Matthew, G. F. 1902. Notes on Cambrian faunas. Transactions of the Royal Society of Canada, 84:93–112.Google Scholar
Peel, J. S. 1991a. Functional morphology of the Class Helcionelloida nov., and the early evolution of the Mollusca, p. 157–177. InSimonetta, A. and Conway Morris, S.(eds.), The Early Evolution of Metazoa and the Significance of Problematic Taxa. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Peel, J. S. 1991b. The classes Tergomya and Helcionelloida, and early molluscan evolution. Bulletin Gr⊘nlands Geologiske Unders⊘gelse, 161:11–65.Google Scholar
Peel, J. S. 2003. A problematic cap-shaped metazoan from the lower Cambrian of Estonia. GFF, 125:157–161.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Peel, J. S. 2010. Articulated hyolithids and other fossils from the Sirius Passet Lagerstätte (early Cambrian) of North Greenland. Bulletin of Geosciences, 85:385–394.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Peel, J. S. and Ineson, J. R. 2011. The Sirius Passet Lagerstätte (early Cambrian) of North Greenland. Palaeontographica Canadiana, 31:109–118.Google Scholar
Ponamarenko, A. G. 2005. Unique Sinsk localities of Early Cambrian Organisms (Siberian Platform). Trudy Paleontologicheskogo Instituta 284:1–144. (In Russian)Google Scholar
Runnegar, B. and Jell, P. A. 1976. Australian middle Cambrian molluscs and their bearing on early molluscan evolution. Alcheringa, 1:109–138.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rusconi, C. 1956. Fósiles cámbricos al sud del Totoral, Mendoza. Revista del Museo de Historia Natural de Mendoza, 9:115–120.Google Scholar
Rusconi, C. 1958. Nuevos fósiles cámbricos de El Totoral, Mendoza. Revista del Museo de Historia Natural de Mendoza, 11:93–107.Google Scholar
Shaw, A. B. 1962. Paleontology of northwestern Vermont, IX. Fauna of the Monkton Quartzite. Journal of Paleontology, 36:322–345.Google Scholar
Skovsted, C. B., Brock, G. A., Lindström, A., Peel, J. S., Paterson, J. R., and Fuller, M. K. 2007. Early Cambrian record of failed durophagy and shell repair in an epibenthic mollusc. Biology Letters, 3:314–317.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thomas, W. A. and Astini, R. A. 1996. The Argentine Precordillera: A traveler from the Ouachita embayment of North American Laurentia. Science, 273:752–757.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Tortello, M. F. and Sabattini, N. M. 2011. Totoralia, a new conical-shaped mollusk from the middle Cambrian of western Argentina. Geologica Acta, 9:175–185.Google Scholar
Yochelson, E. L. and Cid, D. Gil. 1984. Reevaluation of the systematic position of Scenella. Lethaia, 17:331–340.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wenz, W. 1938. Gastropoda. Allgemeiner Teil und Prosobranchia, p. 1–720. InSchindewolf, O.H.(ed.), Handbuch der Paläozoologie, Band 6. Börntraeger, Berlin.Google Scholar
Zhang, W-T. and Babcock, L. E. 2002. Helcionelloid mollusk from the lower Cambrian Heilinpu Formation, Chengjiang, Yunnan. Acta Palaeontologica Sinica, 41:303–307.Google Scholar
ZhaoY-L., M-Y. Y-L., M-Y.Zhu, L. E.Babcock, , and Peng, J.(eds.). 2011. The Kaili Biota: Marine Organisms from 508 Million Years Ago. Guizhou Publishing Group, Guizhou, 251p. (In Chinese)Google Scholar