Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-7cvxr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-28T18:08:43.241Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Kleptothule rasmusseni gen. et sp. nov.: an ?olenellinid-like trilobite from the Sirius Passet fauna (Buen Formation, Lower Cambrian, North Greenland)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 November 2011

Graham E. Budd
Graham E. Budd
Affiliation:
Dept Earth Sciences, University of Cambridge, Downing Street, Cambridge CB2 3EQ, UK
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The Lower Cambrian Sirius Passet fauna from Peary Land, North Greenland, is a rich repository of soft-bodied and poorly-sclerotised fossils. A new arthropod from the fauna, Kleptothule rasmusseni, is described. The animal is broadly trilobite-like, possessing a trilobed exoskeleton which is divided into distinct cephalic, thoracic and caudal regions. However, it is unusual in that it possesses a large number of segments, and demonstrates pronounced cephalic segmentation, and a very narrow cephalon and thorax. There is some evidence that the exoskeleton was lightly mineralised.

Kleptothule is compared to some of the olenellimd trilobites, especially those taxa that possess a many-segmented ‘opisthothorax’. Its morphology raises some issues discussed by Lauterbach (1983) in his assignment of some olenellids to the stem-group of the chelicerates. However, it is not considered herein that such a model can be supported. A complete analysis of basal trilobites and the stem-group leading to them must await a fuller description of key taxa from China and Greenland.

Keywords

Cambrianexceptional preservationSirius PassetTrilobita
Type
Research Article
Information
Earth and Environmental Science Transactions of The Royal Society of Edinburgh , Volume 86 , Issue 1 , 1995 , pp. 1 - 12
Copyright
Copyright © Royal Society of Edinburgh 1995

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

Bergström, J. 1973. Organization, life, and systematics of trilobites. FOSSILS & STRATA 2, 1–69.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Blaker, M. R. 1988. A new genus of nevadiid trilobite from the Buen Formation (Early Cambrian) of Peary Land, central North Greenland. RAPP GRøNLAND GEOL UNDERS 137, 33–41.Google Scholar
Briggs, D. E. G. & Collins, D. 1988. A Middle Cambrian chelicerate from Mount Stephen, British Columbia. PALAEONTOLOGY 31, 779–98.Google Scholar
Briggs, D. E. G. & Fortey, R. A. 1989. The early radiation and relationships of the major arthropod groups. SCIENCE 246, 241–43.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Briggs, D. E. G., Fortey, R. A. & Wills, M. A. 1992. Morphological disparity in the Cambrian. SCIENCE 256, 1670–73.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bryant, I. D. & Pickerill, R. K. 1990. Lower Cambrian trace fossils from the Buen Formation of central North Greenland: preliminary observations. RAPP GR0NLAND GEOL UNDERS 147, 44–62.Google Scholar
Budd, G. 1993. A Cambrian gilled lobopod from Greenland. NATURE 364, 709–11.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Butterfield, N. J. 1994. Burgess Shale-type fossils from a Lower Cambrian shallow-shelf sequence in northwestern Canada. NATURE 369, 477–79.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chen, J.-Y. & Erdtmann, B. D. 1991. Lower Cambrian Lagerstdtte from Chengjiang, Yunnan, China: insights for reconstruction early metazoan life. In Simonetta, A. M. & Conway Morris, S. (eds) The Early Evolution of Metazoa and the Significance of Problematic Taxa, 57–76. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Chen, J.-Y., Ramskold, L. & Zhou, G.-Q. 1994. Evidence for monophyly and arthropod affinity of Cambrian giant predators. SCIENCE 264, 1304–08.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Christie, R. L. & Ineson, J. R. 1979. Precambrian-Silurian geology of the G.B. Schley Fjord region, eastern Peary Land, North Greenland. RAPP GR0NLAND GEOL UNDERS 88, 63–71.Google Scholar
Conway Morris, S. 1986. The community structure of the Middle Cambrian Phyllopod Bed (Burgess Shale). PALAEONTOLOGY 29, 423–68.Google Scholar
Conway Morris, S. 1989. The persistence of Burgess Shale-type faunas: implications for the evolution of deeper-water faunas. TRANS R SOC EDINBURGH: EARTH SCI 80, 271–83.Google Scholar
Conway Morris, S. & Peel, J. S. 1990. Articulated halkieriids from the Lower Cambrian of North Greenland. NATURE 345, 802–04.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Conway Morns, S. & Peel, J. S. 1995. Articulated halkieriids from the Lower Cambrian of North Greenland and their role in early protostome evolution. PHIL TRANS R SOC LONDON B347, 305–58.Google Scholar
Conway Morris, S., Peel, J. S.Higgins, A. K., Soper, N. J. & Davis, N. C. 1987. A Burgess Shale-like fauna from the Lower Cambrian of North Greenland. NATURE 345, 802–05.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Davis, N. C. & Higgins, A. K. 1987. Cambrian-Lower Silurian stratigraphy in the fold and thrust zone between northern Nyeboe Land and J. P. Koch Fjord, North Greenland. RAPP GR0NLAND GEOL UNDERS 133, 91–8.Google Scholar
Delle Cave, L. & Simonetta, A. M. 1991. Early Palaeozoic Arthropods and problems of arthropod phylogeny: with some notes on taxa of doubtful affinity. In Simonetta, A. M. & Conway Morris, S. (eds) The Early Evolution of Metazoa and the Significance of Problematic Taxa, 189–244. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Dohrn, A. 1871. Untersuchungen iiber Bau und Entwickelung der Arthropoden. JENA Z NATURWISS 6, 580–610.Google Scholar
Dzik, J. & Lendzion, K. 1988. The oldest arthropods of the East European Platform. LETHAIA 21, 29–38.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fortey, R. A. 1990. Ontogeny, hypostome attachment and trilobite classification. PALAEONTOLOGY 33, 529–76.Google Scholar
Fortey, R. A. & Whittington, H. B. 1989. The Trilobita as a natural group. HIST BIOL 2, 125–38.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Friderichsen, J. D. & Bengaard, H.-J. 1985. The North Greenland fold belt in eastern Nansen Land. RAPP GR0NLAND GEOL UNDERS 126, 69–78.Google Scholar
Fritz, W. F. 1972. Lower Cambrian trilobites from the Sekwi Formation type section, Mackenzie Mountains, Northwestern Canada. GEOL SURV CAN BULL 212, 1–90.Google Scholar
Gould, S. J. 1989. Wonderful Life: The Burgess Shale and the Nature of History. New York: W. W. Norton and Co.Google Scholar
Higgins, A. K., Ineson, J. R.Peel, J. S., Surlyk, F. & Sonderholm, M. 1991. Lower Palaeozoic Franklinian Basin of North Greenland. BULL GR0NLAND GEOL UNDERS 160, 71–139.Google Scholar
Hou, X. G., Ramskold, L. & Bergström, J. 1991. Composition and preservation of the Chengjiang fauna—a Lower Cambrian soft- bodied biota. ZOOL SCR 20, 395–411.Google Scholar
Hurst, J. M. & Peel, J. S. 1979. Late Proterozoic(?) to Silurian stratigraphy of southern Wulff Land, North Greenland. RAPP GRøNLAND GEOL UNDERS 91, 37–56.Google Scholar
Jepsen, H. F. 1971. The Precambrian, Eocambrian and early Palaeozoic stratigraphy of the Jorgen Branland Fjord area, Peary Land, North Greenland. BULL GR0NLAND GEOL UNDERS 96, 1–42.Google Scholar
Knoll, A. H. & Ohta, Y. 1988. Microfossils in metasediments from Prins Karls Forland, western Svalbard. POLAR RES 6, 59–67.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lane, P. D. & Rushton, A. W. A. 1992. A problematical trilobite from the Lower Cambrian of Freuchen Land, central North Greenland. RAPP GR0NLAND GEOL UNDERS 154, 5–12.Google Scholar
Lauterbach, K.-E. 1980. Schlilsselereignisse in der Evolution des Grundplans der Arachnata (Arthropoda). ABH NATURWISS SCHAFTLICHEN VER HAMBURG 23, 163–327.Google Scholar
Lauterbach, K.-E. 1983. Synapomorphien zwischen Trilobiten-Cheliceratenzweig der Arachnata. ZOOL ANZ 210, 213–38.Google Scholar
Palmer, A. R. 1957. Ontogenetic development of two olenellid trilobites. J PALEONTOL 31, 105–28.Google Scholar
Palmer, A. R. & Repina, L. N. 1993. Through a glass darkly: taxonomy, phylogeny and biostratigraphy of the Olenellina. UNIV KANSAS PALEONT CONTRIB (N.S.) 3, 1–35.Google Scholar
Pocock, K. J. 1970. The Emuellidae, a new family of trilobites from the Lower Cambrian of South Australia. PALAEONTOLOGY 13, 522–62.Google Scholar
Ramskold, L. & Edgecombe, G. D. 1991. Trilobite monophyly revisited. HIST BIOL 4, 267–83.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rigby, J. K. 1986. Cambrian and Silurian sponges from North Greenland. RAPP GR0NLAND GEOL UNDERS 132, 5163.Google Scholar
Romano, M., Chang, W. T., Dean, W. T., Edgecombe, G. D., Fortey, R. A., Holloway, D. J.Lane, P. D., Owen, A. W., Owens, R. M., Palmer, A. R., Rushton, A. W. A., Shergold, J. H., Siveter, D. J. & Whyte, M. A. 1993. Arthropoda (Trilobita). In Benton, M. J. (ed.) The Fossil Record 2, 279–96. London: Chapman and Hall.Google Scholar
Soper, N. J. & Higgins, A. K. 1985. Thin-skinned structures at the basin-shelf transition in North Greenland. RAPP GR0NLAND GEOL UNDERS 126, 87–94.Google Scholar
Stormer, L. 1944. On the relationships and phylogeny of fossil and recent Arachnomorpha. A comparative study on Arachnida, Xiphosura, Eurypterida. Trilobita and other fossil Arthropoda. NORSK VIDENSKAPS-AKAD NATURVIDENSK KL 5, 1–158.Google Scholar
Surlyk, F. & Hurst, J. M. 1983. Evolution of the early Palaeozoic deep-water basin of Greenland: Aulacogen or Narrow Ocean? GEOLOGY 11, 77–81.2.0.CO;2>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Surlyk, F. & Ineson, J. R. 1987. Aspects of the Franklinian shelf, slope and trough evolution and stratigraphy. RAPP GR0NLAND GEOL UNDERS 133, 41–58.Google Scholar
Surlyk, F. 1991. Tectonostratigraphy of North Greenland. BULL GR0NLAND GEOL UNDERS 160, 25–47.Google Scholar
Trettin, H. P. 1991. Tectonic Framework. In Trettin, H. P. (ed.) Geology of the Innuitian Orogen and Arctic Platform of Canada and Greenland no. 3, 59–66. Geological Survey of Canada.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vidal, G. & Peel, J. S. 1993. Acritarchs from the Lower Cambrian Buen Formation in North Greenland. BULL GR0NLAND GEOL UNDERS 164, 1–35.Google Scholar
Whittington, H. B. 1977. The Middle Cambrian Trilobite Naraoia, Burgess Shale, British Columbia. PHI LOS TRANS R SOC LONDON B271, 1–43.Google Scholar
Whittington, H. B. 1981. Paedomorphosis and Crytogenesis in trilobites. GEOL MAG 119, 591–602.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Whittington, H. B. 1985a. The Burgess Shale. New Haven: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Whittington, H. B. 1985b. Tegopelte gigas, a second soft-bodied trilobite from the Burgess Shale, British Columbia. J PALEONTOL 59, 1251–74.Google Scholar
Whittington, H. B. 1989. Olenelloid trilobites: type species, functional morphology and higher classification. PHILOS TRANS R SOC LONDON B324, 111–47.Google Scholar
Whittington, H. B. 1990. Articulation and exuviation in Cambrian trilobites. PHILOS TRANS R SOC LONDON B329 27–46.Google Scholar
Whittington, H. B. 1994. Burlingiids: small proparian Cambrian trilobites of enigmatic origin. PALAEONTOLOGY 37, 1–16.Google Scholar
Wills, M. A., Briggs, D. E. G. & Fortey, R. A. 1994. Disparity as an evolutionary index: a comparison of Cambrian and Recent arthropods. PALEOBIOLOGY 20, 93–130.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Woodward, H. 1867. On some points in the structure of the Xiphosura, having reference to their relationship with the Eurypteridae. Q J GEOL SOC LONDON 23, 28–37.CrossRefGoogle Scholar