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Article: Systematics, preservation and biogeography of radiodonts from the southern Great Basin, USA, during the upper Dyeran (Cambrian Series 2, Stage 4)

Papers in Palaeontology - Volume 7 Issue 1 - Cover
Publication: Papers in Palaeontology
Volume: 7
Part: 1
Publication Date: Febuary 2021
Page(s): 235 262
Author(s): Stephen Pates, Allison C. Daley, Gregory D. Edgecombe, Peiyun Cong, and Bruce S. Lieberman
DOI: 10.1002/spp2.1277
Addition Information

How to Cite

PATES, S., DALEY, A.C., EDGECOMBE, G.D., CONG, P., LIEBERMAN, B.S. 2021. . Papers in Palaeontology, 7, 1, 235-262. DOI: /doi/10.1002/spp2.1277

Author Information

  • Stephen Pates - Department of Zoology University of Oxford South Parks Road Oxford OX1 3PS UK
  • Stephen Pates - Institute of Earth Sciences University of Lausanne Lausanne CH‐1015 Switzerland
  • Allison C. Daley - Institute of Earth Sciences University of Lausanne Lausanne CH‐1015 Switzerland
  • Gregory D. Edgecombe - Department of Earth Sciences The Natural History Museum Cromwell Road London SW7 5BD UK
  • Gregory D. Edgecombe - MEC International Joint Laboratory for Palaeobiology & Palaeoenvironment Yunnan University Kunming 650091 China
  • Peiyun Cong - Department of Earth Sciences The Natural History Museum Cromwell Road London SW7 5BD UK
  • Peiyun Cong - MEC International Joint Laboratory for Palaeobiology & Palaeoenvironment Yunnan University Kunming 650091 China
  • Peiyun Cong - Yunnan Key Laboratory for Palaeobiology Yunnan University Kunming 650091 China
  • Bruce S. Lieberman - Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology University of Kansas Lawrence KS 66045 USA
  • Bruce S. Lieberman - Biodiversity Institute University of Kansas Lawrence KS 66045 USA

Publication History

  • Issue published online: 08 March 2021
  • Manuscript Accepted: 15 February 2019
  • Manuscript Received: 15 October 2018

Funded By

Palaeontological Association
Leverhulme Trust
Oxford University Museum of Natural History
University of Lausanne

Online Version Hosted By

Wiley Online Library
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Abstract

Anomalocaris, the most well‐known genus of the diverse stem euarthropod group Radiodonta, was first reported over 100 years ago from the Burgess Shale (Canada). This large Cambrian apex predator was later treated as occurring in the southern Great Basin (California and Nevada, USA). We re‐evaluate the systematic affinities of previously described material from the Pioche Formation, Nevada, and the Latham Shale, California, and describe the first radiodonts from the Pyramid Shale Member, Carrara Formation, California. Latham Shale (Cambrian Series 2, Stage 4, upper Dyeran) specimens previously assigned to Anomalocaris are reinterpreted as Ramskoeldia consimilis?, an amplectobeluid previously known only from the Chengjiang biota (Cambrian Series 2, Stage 3). Younger material from the Pioche and Carrara Formations (Series 2, Stage 4) is described as a new Anomalocaris species, A. magnabasis. This new species sheds light on the two‐part structure of Anomalocaris ventral endites, a potentially important character for distinguishing species, and reveals a sequence of five disarticulation stages for frontal appendages. The oldest Hurdia from Laurentia is also reported from the Pioche Formation (Cambrian Series 2, Stage 4). A changeover in taxonomic composition of the Radiodonta in the southern Great Basin is recognized: Anomalocaris replaces Ramskoeldia in the upper Dyeran, but it is not associated with a replacement of local olenelloid trilobites or seen in radiodonts elsewhere in Laurentia. These new data, combined with a summary of known radiodont occurrences, suggest that Anomalocaris species did not have large geographical distributions, when compared with other radiodonts such as Hurdia and Caryosyntrips.

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