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Dryad

Data from: A vicissicaudatan arthropod from the Silurian Herefordshire Lagerstätte, UK

Data files

Jul 20, 2023 version files 2.11 GB

Abstract

A new arthropod, Carimersa neptuni gen. et sp. nov., is described from the Silurian (Wenlock Series) Herefordshire Konservat-Lagerstätte, UK. The head bears pedunculate eyes and five pairs of appendages. Triflagellate antennae are followed by two pairs of uniramous limbs each with an endopod bearing a pronounced gnathobasic basipod. The posterior two pairs of head limbs and all trunk limbs bear an endopod, exopod and filamentous exite. The trunk consists of ten appendage-bearing segments followed by an apodous abdomen of four segments. The arthropod resolves as sister taxon to Kodymirus and Eozetetes + Aglaspidida. It is the first representative of Vicissicaudata reported from the Herefordshire Lagerstätte and the first Silurian example with well preserved appendages. The preservation of a cluster of radiolarians apparently captured by the trunk appendages is the first direct association of predator and prey discovered in the Herefordshire fauna and suggests that Carimersa was a nektobenthic form that used its gnathobasic basipods in microdurophagy.