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A new aglaspidid euarthropod with a six-segmented trunk from the Lower Ordovician Fezouata Konservat-Lagerstätte, Morocco

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 October 2015

JAVIER ORTEGA-HERNÁNDEZ ,
PETER VAN ROY  and
RUDY LEROSEY-AUBRIL
JAVIER ORTEGA-HERNÁNDEZ*
Affiliation:
Department of Earth Sciences, Downing Site, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, CB2 3EQ, UK
PETER VAN ROY*
Affiliation:
Department of Geology and Geophysics, Yale University, PO Box 208109, New Haven, Connecticut 06520, USA
RUDY LEROSEY-AUBRIL
Affiliation:
Division of Earth Sciences, School of Environmental & Rural Science, University of New England, Armidale, NSW 2351, Australia
*
†Authors for correspondence: jo314@cam.ac.uk, peter.vanroy@yale.edu
†Authors for correspondence: jo314@cam.ac.uk, peter.vanroy@yale.edu
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Abstract

A new euarthropod with an uncommon morphology, Brachyaglaspis singularis gen. et sp. nov., is described from the Early Ordovician (middle Floian) Fezouata biota of Morocco. The presence of a pair of postventral plates, widely attached to each other and located under the posterior-most trunk tergite and the base of the tailspine, indicates a phylogenetic relationship with the enigmatic group Aglaspidida. The overall morphology of Brachyaglaspis most closely resembles that of the ‘Ordovician-type’ aglaspidids, more specifically the late Cambrian – Early Ordovician genus Tremaglaspis. However, the presence of a prominent cephalon and only six trunk tergites in the new genus deviates from the organization of all other known aglaspidid species, notably extending the known range of morphological disparity of the group. A taxonomic revision of this euarthropod group indicates that the most accurate name and authorship combination correspond to Aglaspidida Walcott, 1912.

Keywords

AglaspididaFloianpostventral platesOrdovician-type aglaspididTremaglaspis

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Type
Original Articles
Information
Geological Magazine , Volume 153 , Issue 3 , May 2016 , pp. 524 - 536
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2015 

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