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An atheloptic trilobite assemblage from the Carboniferous of North Devon

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 May 2009

R. M. Owens
Affiliation:
Department of Geology, National Museum of Wales, Cardiff CF1 3NP, UK
J. W. Tilsley
Affiliation:
2 Ansell Road, Sheffield S11 7PE, UK

Abstract

New collections of trilobites have been made from Dinantian rocks in North Devon, distributed among seven genera. Of these, Wagnerispina, Archegonus (Phillibole), Liobole, Aprathia, and probably Lichanocoryphe gen. nov., are primitive phillipsiids belonging to the subfamily Archegoninae. Reasons are given here for the others, Tawstockia and Spatulina, previously considered to be primitive phillipsiids of the subfamily Cystispininae, to belong to the higher phillipsiids, as effaced, blind members respectively of the Linguaphillipsiinae and Cummingellinae. The species of these genera from North Devon discussed here, three of which are new, are either small-eyed or blind, and form an atheloptic assemblage; they occur in hemipelagic sediments of the Codden Hill Chert Group in the Barnstaple district, and the Kersdown Chert Formation in the Bampton district. Ammonoids associated with the trilobites indicate an early Viséan, late Chadian age for the fauna, and the same or similar trilobite species and subspecies occur in the Březina Shales of Moravia, suggesting that they are approximately coeval.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1995

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