Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-4rdpn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-03T00:18:28.417Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Machaeridians from the Lower Silurian (Llandovery, Telychian) of Shropshire, England

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 July 2015

Lucy M. E. McCobb  and
Michael G. Bassett
Lucy M. E. McCobb
Affiliation:
Department of Geology, National Museum of Wales, Cathays Park, Cardiff, CF10 3NP, UK,
Michael G. Bassett
Affiliation:
Department of Geology, National Museum of Wales, Cathays Park, Cardiff, CF10 3NP, UK,
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Machaeridians are marine Palaeozoic fossils, known from sediments of early Ordovician to mid Permian age (Bengtson, 1978; Cooper and Grant, 1972; Kaasa, 1992). Rare, completely articulated specimens reveal that they were long, slender, bilaterally symmetrical animals, covered by a dorsal scleritome comprising longitudinally arranged series of calcite sclerites (e.g., Adrain et al., 1991; Högström and Taylor, 2001a, 2001b). However, most known machaeridians, including those described in this paper, comprise isolated disarticulated sclerites. Until recently, the taxonomic affinities of the group were uncertain, and historically they were assigned to a number of different phyla (e.g., see Adrain, 1992). However, the recent account of an exceptionally preserved specimen with soft tissue anatomy, from the Lower Fezouata Formation (Lower Ordovician, Tremadocian) of Morocco, now indicates that machaeridians were annelid worms (Vinther et al., 2008).

Type
Paleontological Notes
Information
Journal of Paleontology , Volume 82 , Issue 6 , November 2008 , pp. 1207 - 1214
Copyright
Copyright © The Paleontological Society

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

Adrain, J. M. 1992. Machaeridian classification. Alcheringa, 16:15–32.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Adrain, J. M., Chatterton, B. D. E., and Blodgett, R. B. 1995. Silurian trilobites from Southwestern Alaska. Journal of Paleontology, 69:723–736.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Adrain, J. M., Chatterton, B. D. E., and Cocks, L. R. M. 1991. A new species of machaeridian from the Silurian of Podolia, USSR, with a review of the Turrilepadidae. Palaeontology, 34:637–651.Google Scholar
Aurivillius, C. W. S. 1892. Über einige ober-siluriches Cirripeden aus Gotland. Bihang till Kongliga Svenska Vetenskaps-Akademien Handlingar (Stockholm), 18:1–24.Google Scholar
Barrande, J. 1872. Système Silurien du centre de la Bohème. Ière Partie: Recherches paléontologiques, Vol. 1, Suppl. Trilobites, Crustacés divers et Poissons, texte et planches. Carl Wilhelm Medau, Prague and Paris, 565–577, pls 20, 35.Google Scholar
Bassett, M. G. and Rong, J.-Y. 2002. Brachiopods, p. 124–136. In Holland, C. H. and Bassett, M. G. (eds.), Telychian rocks of the British Isles and China (Silurian, Llandovery Series): An experiment to test precision in stratigraphy. National Museum of Wales Geological Series 21, Cardiff.Google Scholar
Bengtson, S. 1978. The Machaeridia—a square peg in a pentagonal hole. Thalassia Jugoslavica, 12:1–10.Google Scholar
Bengtson, S. 1979. Machaeridians. p. 211–212. In Jaanusson, V., Laufeld, S., and Skoglund, R. (eds.), Lower Wenlock faunal and floral dynamics—Vattenfallet section, Gotland, Sveriges Geologiska Undersökning, Avhandlingar och Uppsatser C762.Google Scholar
Benton, M. J. and Gray, D. I. 1981. Lower Silurian distal shelf storm-induced turbidites in the Welsh Borders: Sediments, tool markers and trace fossils. Journal of the Geological Society, London, 138:675–694.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chapman, F. 1910. New or little known Victorian fossils in the National Museum, Part 10—some Palaeozoic worms and Crustacea. Proceedings of the Royal Society of Victoria, 22:101–112.Google Scholar
Clarke, J. M. 1896. The structure of certain Palaeozoic barnacles. American Geologist, 17:137–143.Google Scholar
Cocks, L. R. M. and Rickards, R. B. 1969. Five boreholes in Shropshire and the relationships of shelly and graptolitic facies in the Lower Silurian. Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society of London, 124:213–238.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cocks, L. R. M. and Walton, G. 1968. A large temporary exposure in the Lower Silurian of Shropshire. Geological Magazine, 105:390–397.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cooper, G. A. and Grant, R. E. 1972. Permian brachiopods of West Texas, I. Smithsonian contributions to Paleobiology, 14:1–232.Google Scholar
Curtis, N. J. and Lane, P. D. 1997–1998. The Llandovery trilobites of England and Wales. Monograph of the Palaeontographical Society, London, Part 1,1–50, pls. 1–3 (Publication no. 605, part of Vol. 151 for 1997); Part 2, 51–101, pls. 4–12 (Publication no. 608, part of Vol. 152 for 1998).Google Scholar
Dzik, J. 1986. Turrilepadida and other Machaeridia. In Hoffman, A. and Nitecki, M. H. (eds.), Problematic fossil taxa. Clarendon Press, Oxford, 267 p.Google Scholar
Dzik, J. 1994. Evolution of “small shelly fossils” assemblages. Acta Palaeontologica Polonica, 39:247–313.Google Scholar
Faber, C. L. 1886. Remarks on some fossils of the Cincinnati Group. Journal of the Cincinnati Society for Natural History, 9:14–20.Google Scholar
Greig, D. C., Wright, J. E., Hains, B. A., and Mitchell, G. H. 1968. Geology of the country around Church Stretton, Craven Arms, Wenlock Edge and Brown Clee. Memoirs of the Geological Survey of Great Britain, Sheet 166, xiii + 379pp.Google Scholar
Hall, J. and Clarke, J. M. 1888. Geological Survey of the State of New York, Palaeontology. Volume 7. Charles Van Benthuysen and Sons, Albany, 236 p.Google Scholar
Hall, J. and Whitfield, R. P. 1875. Description of invertebrate fossils, mainly from the Silurian system. Report of the Geological Survey of Ohio, Palaeontology, 2:65–161.Google Scholar
Högström, A. E. S. 1997. Machaeridians from the Upper Wenlock (Silurian) of Gotland. Palaeontology, 40:817–831.Google Scholar
Högström, A. E. S., Bogolepova, O. K., and Gubanov, A. P. 2002. Plumulitid machaeridian remains from the Silurian (Telychian) of Severnaya Zemlya, Arctic Russia. Norwegian Journal of Geology (Norsk Geologisk Tidsskrift), 82:53–55.Google Scholar
Högström, A. E. S. and Taylor, W. L. 2001a. Lepidocoleus cf. ulrichi (Machaeridia) from the Trenton Group (Ordovician) of Ontario (Canada). Paläontologische Zeitschrift, 75:13–16.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Högström, A. E. S. and Taylor, W. L. 2001b. The Machaeridian Lepidocoleus sarlei Clarke, 1896, from the Rochester Shale (Silurian) of New York State. Palaeontology, 44:113–130.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Holland, C. H. and Bassett, M. G. (eds.), 2002. Telychian rocks of the British Isles and China (Silurian, Llandovery Series): An experiment to test precision in stratigraphy. National Museum of Wales Geological Series No. 21, Cardiff, 210 p.Google Scholar
Jell, P. A. 1979. Plumulites and the machaeridian problem. Alcheringa, 3:253–259.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kaasa, M. 1992. Late Pennsylvanian and Permian Turrilepadida (Machaeridia) from the Western and South-Central United States. Abstracts and Program, 5th North American Paleontological Convention, 1:154.Google Scholar
Koninck, L. de. 1857. Sur deux nouvelles espèces siluriennes appartenant au genre Chiton . Bulletin de l'Académie des Sciences de Belgique, Series 2, 3:190–199.Google Scholar
Koninck, L. de. 1860. Observations on two new species of Chiton from the Upper Silurian “Wenlock Limestone” of Dudley (translated by W. H. Baily, F. G. S.). Annals and Magazine of Natural History, 3:91–98.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lamarck, J. B. 1809. Philosophie zoologique, ou exposition des considérations relatives à l'histoire naturelle des animaux. Engelmann, Weinheim.Google Scholar
Lane, P. D. 2002. Telychian rocks in the British Isles. Shropshire: Church Stretton and Wenlock Edge, p. 102–124. In Holland, C. H. and Bassett, M. G. (eds.), Telychian rocks of the British Isles and China (Silurian, Llandovery Series): an experiment to test precision in stratigraphy. National Museum of Wales Geological Series No. 21, Cardiff.Google Scholar
Moberg, J. C. 1914. Om Svenska Silurcirripedier. Lunds Universitets Årsskrift, Ny Följd, Afdelning 2, 11:1–20.Google Scholar
Nicholson, H. A. and Etheridge, R. Jr. 1880. A Monograph of the Silurian Fossils of the Girvan district in Ayrshire, with special reference to those contained in the “Gray Collection” I. W. Blackwood, Edinburgh and London, 341 p.Google Scholar
Pilsbry, H. A. 1916. The sessile barnacles (Cirripedia) contained in the collections of the U.S. National Museum. United States National Museum Bulletin, 93:xi + 366p.Google Scholar
Prokop, R. 1965. Trida Machaeridia, p. 997–999. In Spinar, Z. (ed.), Systematická Paleontologie Bezobratlch. Acedemia, Prague.Google Scholar
Reed, F. R. C. 1901. Woodwardian Museum Notes: Salter's undescribed species, III. Geological Magazine, 8:106–110.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schallreuter, R. 1985. Mikrofossilien aus Geschieben IV. Machaeridier. Der Geschiebesammler, 18:157–171.Google Scholar
Schrank, E. 1978. Machaeridia aus Silurichen Geschieben. Der Geschiebesammler, 11:5–22.Google Scholar
Sowerby, J. de C. 1839. Organic remains, p. 597–765. In Murchison, R. I. (ed.), The Silurian System. John Murray, London.Google Scholar
Stewart, S. E., Anderson, L. I., and Clarkson, E. N. K. 2007. Miscellanea, p. 195–200. In Clarkson, E. N. K., Harper, D. A. T., Taylor, C. M., and Anderson, L. I. (eds.), Silurian fossils of the Pentland Hills, Scotland. Palaeontological Association Field Guide to Fossils, 11:1–218.Google Scholar
Vinther, J., Van Roy, P., and Briggs, D. E. G. 2008. Machaeridians are Palaeozoic armoured annelids. Nature, 451:185–188.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Withers, T. H. 1922. The “Cirripede” Lepidocoleus in the Upper Ordovician rocks of Scotland. Annals and Magazine of Natural History, 9:653–656.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Withers, T. H. 1926. Catalogue of the Machaeridia (Turrilepas and its allies) in the Department of Geology. British Museum (Natural History), London, xv + 99 p.Google Scholar
Woodward, H. 1865. On the discovery of a new genus of Cirripedia in the Wenlock Limestone and Shale of Dudley. Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society, London, 21:486–489.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wu, H.-J. 1990. Occurrence of Machaeridia in China. Acta Palaeontologica Sinica, 29:567–580.Google Scholar
Ziegler, A. M. 1966. The Silurian brachiopod, Eocoelia hemisphaerica (J. de C. Sowerby) and related species. Palaeontology, 9:523–543.Google Scholar
Ziegler, A. M., Cocks, L. R. M., and Bambach, R. K. 1968. The composition and structure of Lower Silurian marine communities. Lethaia, 1:1–27.CrossRefGoogle Scholar