Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-dk4vv Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-27T13:01:57.985Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

A new Late Silurian (Pridolian) naraoiid (Euarthropoda: Nektaspida) from the Bertie Formation of southern Ontario, Canada—delayed fallout from the Cambrian explosion

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 May 2016

Jean-Bernard Caron ,
David M. Rudkin  and
Stuart Milliken
Jean-Bernard Caron
Affiliation:
1Department of Zoology, Ramsay Wright Zoological Laboratories, University of Toronto, Ontario M5S 3G5, Canada,
David M. Rudkin
Affiliation:
2Department of Palaeobiology, Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto M5S 2C6
Stuart Milliken
Affiliation:
3148 East Avenue, Brantford, Ontario N3S 3M4
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The discovery of a new naraoiid nektaspid in the Upper Silurian (Pridolian) of southeastern Ontario significantly extends the range of this unusual group. Nektaspids are nonmineralized arthropods typical of Early and Middle Cambrian soft-bottom communities, but were thought to have become extinct in the Late Ordovician. The unique holotype specimen of Naraoia bertiensis n. sp. comes from a Konservat–Lagerstätte deposit renowned for its eurypterid fauna (the Williamsville Member of the Bertie Formation). Naraoia bertiensis lacks thoracic segments and is morphologically similar to Naraoia compacta from the Middle Cambrian Burgess Shale, save for the presence of a long ventral cephalic doublure and a subtly pointed posterior shield. To examine the phylogenetic relationships of the new naraoiid, we coded characters of the holotype specimen and of nine previously described nektaspids. The results confirm a sister taxon relationship between Naraoia compacta and Naraoia bertiensis and the monophyly of nektaspid forms lacking thoracic segments (family Naraoiidae). This latter group may have arisen from an ancestral segment-bearing form through heterochronic loss of thoracic segments early in the Cambrian. The disjunct occurrence of a naraoiid nektaspid in the Late Silurian resembles the reappearance of other “Lazarus taxa” that were thought to have been eliminated during mass extinction events. The naraoiid lineage survived the Late Ordovician biotic crisis, but in this case the “Lazarus effect” seems likely to be taphonomic in origin.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Paleontology , Volume 78 , Issue 6 , November 2004 , pp. 1138 - 1145
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

Babcock, L. E. 1994. Systematics and phylogenetics of polymeroid trilobites from the Henson Gletscher and Kap Stanton formations (Middle Cambrian), North Greenland. Bulletin Gr⊘nlands geologiske Unders⊘gelse, 169:79–127.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bartels, C., Briggs, D. E. G., and Brassel, G. 1998. The fossils of the Hunsrück Slate. Cambridge Paleobiology Series, 3, 309 p.Google Scholar
Bergström, J. 1992. The oldest arthropods and the origin of Crustacea. Acta Zoologica, 73:287–291.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Braddy, S. J. 2001. Eurypterid palaeoecology: palaeobiological, ichnological and comparative evidence for a ‘mass-moult-mate’ hypothesis. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 172:115–132.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brett, C. E., Goodman, W. M., Loduca, S. T., Pratt, B., and Tetreault, D. 1998. Silurian–Early Devonian sequence stratigraphy, cycles, and paleoenvironments of the Niagara Peninsula area of Ontario, Canada. Geological Society of America Annual Meeting, Toronto, Canada, Field Trip Guide, 16:32.Google Scholar
Briggs, D. E. G., and Fortey, R. A. 1992. The Early Cambrian Radiation of Arthropods, p. 335–373. In Lipps, J. H. and Signor, P. W. (eds.), Origin and Early Evolution of the Metazoa. Plenum Press, New York.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Briggs, D. E. G., Fortey, R. A., and Wills, M. A. 1992. Morphological disparity in the Cambrian. Science, 256:1670–1673.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Brongniart, A. 1822. Les Trilobites, p. 1–65. In Brongniart, A. and Desmarest, A. G. (eds.), Histoire naturelle des crustacés fossiles, sous les rapports zoologiques et géologiques, Paris.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Budd, G. E. 1999. A Nektaspid arthropod from the early Cambrian Sirius Passet fauna, with a description of retrodeformation based on functional morphology. Palaeontology, 42:99–122.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Butterfield, N. J. 1995. Secular distribution of Burgess–Shale-type preservation. Lethaia, 28:1–13.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chen, J. Y., Edgecombe, G. D., and Ramsköld, L. 1997. Morphological and ecological disparity in naraoiids (Arthropoda) from the Early Cambrian Chengjiang fauna, China. Records of the Austalian Museum, 49:1–24.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Clarke, J. M., and Ruedemann, R. 1912. The Eurypterida of New York. Memoirs of the New York State Museum of Natural History, 14:1–439.Google Scholar
Copeland, M., and Bolton, T. E. 1985. Fossils of Ontario Part 3: The Eurypterids and Phyllocarids. Royal Ontario Museum Life Sciences Miscellaneous Publications, 48 p.Google Scholar
Dzik, J., and Lendzion, K. 1988. The oldest arthropods of the East European Platform. Lethaia, 21:29–38.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Edgecombe, G. D., and Ramsköld, L. 1999. Relationships of Cambrian Arachnata and the systematic position of Trilobita. Journal of Paleontology, 73:263–287.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fara, E. 2001. What are Lazarus taxa? Geological Journal, 36:291–303.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Flessa, K. W., and Jablonski, D. 1983. Extinction is here to stay. Paleobiology, 9:315–321.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fortey, R. A. 1997. Classification, p. 289–302. In Kaesler, R. L. (ed.), Treatise on Invertebrate Paleontology. Part O. Arthropoda 1, Trilobita (revised). Geological Society of America and University of Kansas Press, Lawrence.Google Scholar
Fortey, R. A., and Theron, J. N. 1994. A new Ordovician arthropod, Soomaspis, and the agnostid problem. Palaeontology, 37:841–861.Google Scholar
Fortey, R. A., and Whittington, H. B. 1989. The Trilobita as a natural group. Historical Biology, 2:125–138.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hammann, W., Laske, R., and Pillola, G. L. 1990. Tariccoia arrusensis n. g. n. sp., an unusual trilobite-like arthropod. Rediscovery of the “phyllocarid” beds of Taricco (1922) in the Ordovician “Puddinga” sequence of Sardinia. Bollettino della Societa Paleontologica Italiana, 29:163–178.Google Scholar
Haynes, S. J., and Parkins, W. G. 1992. Stratigraphy of the Cayugan Series: Lithofacies of the Bertie and Bass Islands Formations, Onondaga Escarpment, p. 22–37. Geoscience Research Grant Program, Summary of Research 1991–1992. Ontario Geological Survey Miscellaneous Paper, 159.Google Scholar
Hennig, W. 1966. Phylogenetic Systematics. University of Illinois Press, Urbana, 263 p.Google Scholar
Hou, X. G., and Bergström, J. 1991. The arthropods of the Lower Cambrian Chengjiang fauna, with relationships and evolutionary significance, p. 179–187. In Simonetta, A. M. and Morris, S. Conway (eds.), The Early Evolution of Metazoa and the Significance of Problematic Taxa. Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Johnson, M. D., Armstrong, D. K., Sanford, B. V., Telford, P. G., and Rutka, M. A. 1992. Paleozoic and Mesozoic geology of Ontario. In Geology of Ontario, Ontario Geological Survey Special, Volume 4, Pt. 2, p. 907–1008.Google Scholar
Kluessendorf, J., and Mikulic, D. G. 1991. The role of anoxia in the formation of Silurian Konservat Lagerstätten. Geological Society of America, Northeastern and Southeastern sections, Baltimore, United States Abstracts with Programs, 23:54.Google Scholar
Maddison, D. R., and Maddison, W. P. 1992. MacClade 3.04, Analysis of Phylogeny and Character Evolution. Sinauer Associates, Sunderland, Massachusetts.Google Scholar
Meek, F. B. 1877. Palaeontology. United States Geological Exploration of the Fortieth Parallel. Geologist in Charge, 4:1–197.Google Scholar
Mikulic, D. G., Briggs, D. E. G., and Kluessendorf, J. 1985. A Silurian soft-bodied biota. Science, 228:715–717.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Nedin, C. 1999. Anomalocaris predation on nonmineralized and mineralized trilobites. Geology, 27:987–990.2.3.CO;2>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ramsköld, L., and Edgecombe, G. D. 1991. Trilobite monophyly revisited. Historical Biology, 4:267–283.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Raymond, P. E. 1920. The appendages, anatomy and relationships of trilobites. Memoirs of the Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences, 7:1–169.Google Scholar
Repina, L. N., and Okuneva, O. G. 1969. Cambrian Arthropods of the Maritime Territory. Paleontological Journal, 1:95–103.Google Scholar
Rickards, R. B., and Wright, A. J. 2002. Lazarus taxa, refugia and relict faunas: Evidence from graptolites. Journal of the Geological Society (London), 159:1–4.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Robison, R. A. 1984. New occurrences of the unusual trilobite Naraoia from the Cambrian of Idaho and Utah. University of Kansas Paleontological Contributions, 112:1–8.Google Scholar
Shabica, C. W., and Hay, A. A. 1997. Richardson's Guide to the Fossil Fauna of Mazon Creek. Northeastern Illinois University, Chicago, 308 p.Google Scholar
Swofford, D. L. 2002. PAUP: Phylogenetic Analysis Using Parsimony. Illinois Natural History Survey, Champaign.Google Scholar
Walcott, C. D. 1912. Middle Cambrian Branchiopoda, Malacostraca, Trilobita and Merostomata. Cambrian Geology and Paleontology II. Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections, 57:145–228.Google Scholar
Walcott, C. D. 1931. Addenda to descriptions of Burgess Shale fossils. Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections, 85:1–46.Google Scholar
Walossek, D., and Müller, K. J. 1990. Upper Cambrian stem-lineage crustaceans and their bearing upon the monophyletic origin of Crustacea and the position of Agnostus . Lethaia, 23:409–427.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Whittington, H. B. 1977. The Middle Cambrian trilobite, Naraoia, Burgess Shale, British Columbia. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, series B, 280:409–443.Google Scholar
Wills, M. A., Briggs, D. E. G., Fortey, R. A., Wilkinson, M., and Sneath, P. H. A. 1998. An arthropod phylogeny based on fossil and recent taxa, p. 33–105. In Edgecombe, G. D. (ed.), Arthropod Fossils and Phylogeny. Columbia University Press, New York.Google Scholar
Zhang, W. T., and Hou, X. G. 1985. Preliminary notes on the occurrence of the unusual trilobite Naraoia in Asia. Acta Paleontologica Sinica, 24:591–595.Google Scholar
Zhang, X.-L., Han, J., Zhang, Z.-F., Liu, H.-Q., and Shu, D.-G. 2003. Reconsideration of the supposed naraoiid larva from the Early Cambrian Chengjiang Lagerstätte, South China. Palaeontology, 46:447–465.CrossRefGoogle Scholar