Quantification of leg mobility in the Burgess Shale Olenoides serratus indicates functional differences between trilobite and xiphosuran appendages.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Euarthropod appendages are specialized for diverse roles including feeding, walking, and mating, which require precise morphologies and ranges of motion. Cambrian fossils preserve exceptional details of extinct euarthropod appendages that can illuminate their anatomy and ecology. However, fossils are typically restricted by small sample sizes or incomplete preservation, and thus functional studies of the appendages usually rely on idealized reconstructions. The Burgess Shale Olenoides serratus is unique among trilobites owing to the availability of numerous specimens with soft tissue preservation that allow us to quantify its appendages' functional morphology.

Results

We measured the range of motion of the legs in Olenoides serratus and the extant horseshoe crab L

SUBMITTER: Losso SR 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12320380 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature