New insights into the Devonian sea spiders of the Hunsruck Slate (Arthropoda: Pycnogonida).

ABSTRACT:

Background

The sea spiders (Pycnogonida Latreille, 1810) of the Hunsrück Slate (Lower Devonian, ~400 million years ago) are iconic in their abundance, exquisite pyritic preservation, and in their distinctive body plan compared to extant sea spiders (Pantopoda Gerstäcker, 1863). Consequently, the Hunsrück sea spiders are important in understanding the deep evolutionary history of Pycnogonida, yet they remain poorly characterised, impacting upon attempts to establish a time-calibrated phylogeny of sea spiders.

Methods

Here, we investigated previously described and new material representing four of the five Hunsrück pycnogonids: Flagellopantopus blocki Poschmann & Dunlop, 2006; Palaeoisopus problematicus Broili, 1928; Palaeopantopus maucheri Broili, 1929; a

SUBMITTER: Sabroux R 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11485130 | biostudies-literature | 2024

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature