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A new synziphosurine (Chelicerata: Xiphosura) from the Late Llandovery (Silurian) Waukesha Lagerstätte, Wisconsin, USA

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 May 2016

Rachel A. Moore ,
Derek E. G. Briggs ,
Simon J. Braddy ,
Lyall I. Anderson ,
Donald G. Mikulic  and
Joanne Kluessendorf
Rachel A. Moore
Affiliation:
Department of Earth Sciences, University of Bristol, Wills Memorial Building, Queen's Road, Bristol BS8 1RJ, United Kingdom,
Derek E. G. Briggs
Affiliation:
Department of Geology and Geophysics, Yale University, P.O. Box 208109, New Haven, Connecticut 06520-8109
Simon J. Braddy
Affiliation:
Department of Earth Sciences, University of Bristol, Wills Memorial Building, Queen's Road, Bristol BS8 1RJ, United Kingdom,
Lyall I. Anderson
Affiliation:
Department of Geology and Zoology, National Museums of Scotland, Chambers Street, Edinburgh EH1 1JF, United Kingdom
Donald G. Mikulic
Affiliation:
Illinois State Geological Survey, Champaign 61820 (published with permission of the Chief of the Illinois State Geological Survey)
Joanne Kluessendorf
Affiliation:
Weis Earth Science Museum, University of Wisconsin-Fox Valley, Menasha 54952
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Abstract

A new synziphosurine (Chelicerata: Xiphosura) is described from the Late Llandovery (Silurian) Konservat-Lagerstätte of Waukesha, Wisconsin, USA. Venustulus waukeshaensis n.gen. and sp. is characterized by a semicircular carapace with a slightly procurved posterior margin lacking genal spines and an opisthosoma composed of 10 freely articulating segments, divided into a preabdomen of seven segments with blunt pleurae and a postabdomen of three segments lacking pleurae. The tail spine is short and styliform. This is the earliest known unequivocal synziphosurine, extending their fossil record from the Wenlock to the Llandovery, and only the second species to be described with prosomal appendages; the presence of six pairs (a pair of chelicerae and five pairs of walking legs) contrasts with the seven in the synziphosurine Weinbergina opitzi, but is comparable to the number in modern horseshoe crabs. V. waukeshaensis n. gen. and sp. is not assigned to a family here pending a wider revision, but it bears most resemblance to the Weinberginidae.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Paleontology , Volume 79 , Issue 2 , March 2005 , pp. 242 - 250
Copyright
Copyright © The Paleontological Society 

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