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Viola Group (Ordovician, Oklahoma) cryptolithinid trilobites: biogeography and taxonomy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 May 2016

Frederick C. Shaw
Frederick C. Shaw*
Affiliation:
Department of Geology and Geography, Lehman College, The City University of New York, Bronx 10468
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Abstract

Cryptolithinid trilobites have been repeatedly described from North America for over 150 years. Earlier work on these forms is here integrated with new information from Oklahoma to form a strong case for the following conclusions: 1) the genus Cryptolithus migrated to (present-day) eastern North America from Europe at a single time in the early Caradoc; 2) it gave rise rapidly to a western North American relative, Cryptolithoides; 3) both genera were restricted to relatively cool-water shelf environments roughly 30 m deep and remained, in general, geographically isolated for several million years. The Viola Group, geographically between these eastern and western occurrences and representing much of Middle and Upper Ordovician time, chronicles the interplay between these two genera over some six million years.

In the biogeographic boundary region formed by Oklahoma, the two supposedly distinct genera showed suprising convergence of fringe pit and other character traits as marine transgression reduced provinciality through Ordovician time. This suprising convergence of genera is interpreted as hybridization of mere subspecies after several million years of incomplete geographic separation.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Paleontology , Volume 65 , Issue 6 , November 1991 , pp. 919 - 935
Copyright
Copyright © The Paleontological Society 

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