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Non-trilobite arthropods from the Silver Peak Range, Nevada

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 July 2015

Ben Waggoner
Ben Waggoner*
Affiliation:
Department of Biology, University of Central Arkansas, Conway, 72035-5003,
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Abstract

Two non-trilobite arthropods are described from the Emigrant Formation (Lower Cambrian-Lower Ordovician) in the Silver Peak Range, Esmeralda County, Nevada. A Middle or Upper Cambrian “arachnomorph” arthropod with a phosphatic exoskeleton has been noted in previous faunal lists, but has not been previously described. This fossil is here named Quasimodaspis brentsae gen. et sp. nov. Q. brentsae belongs in the Aglaspidida, a close outgroup to the true chelicerates; this is the second report of an aglaspidid from the Great Basin. Esmeraldacaris richardsonae gen. et sp. nov. is a newly discovered arthropod from the lower Ordovician, from beds transitional between the Emigrant Formation and the overlying Palmetto Formation. It is a survivor of an early arthropod lineage that does not belong in any extant taxon, but which may also include the Ordovician Corcorania and the Cambrian Mollisonia.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Paleontology , Volume 77 , Issue 4 , July 2003 , pp. 706 - 720
Copyright
Copyright © The Paleontological Society

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