Article: Computer-aided restoration of a Late Cambrian ceratopygid trilobite from Wales, and its phylogenetic implications
Publication: Palaeontology
Volume:
33
Part:
2
Publication Date:
May
1990
Page(s):
429
–
445
Author(s):
Nigel C. Hughes and Adrian W. A. Rushton
Abstract
Tectonic deformation is liable to affect the diagnostic characters of fossils, but its effects can be removed with the help of a computer-graphic technique, which is here applied to trilobites for the first time. Dikelocephalusl discoidalis Salter, 1866, with its putative synonym D.? celticus Salter, 1866, is known only from distorted specimens collected from the upper part of the Parabolina spinulosa Biozone in the Dolgellau Formation (upper Cambrian) of North Wales. It has been reconstructed by removing tectonic deformation. D. ? discoidalis is now referred to Cermatops Shergold, a member of the Subfamily Iwayaspidinae; this group is considered to be a paraphyletic subgroup within the Family Ceratopygidae.