New fossils of Jurassic ophiurid brittle stars (Ophiuroidea; Ophiurida) provide evidence for early clade evolution in the deep sea.

ABSTRACT: Understanding of the evolutionary history of the ophiuroids, or brittle stars, is hampered by a patchy knowledge of the fossil record. Especially, the stem members of the living clades are poorly known, resulting in blurry concepts of the early clade evolution and imprecise estimates of divergence ages. Here, we describe new ophiuroid fossil from the Lower Jurassic of France, Luxembourg and Austria and introduce the new taxa Ophiogojira labadiei gen. et sp. nov. from lower Pliensbachian shallow sublittoral deposits, Ophiogojira andreui gen. et sp. nov. from lower Toarcian shallow sublittoral deposits and Ophioduplantiera noctiluca gen. et sp. nov. from late Sinemurian to lower Pliensbachian bathyal deposits. A Bayesian morphological phylogenetic analysis shows that

SUBMITTER: Thuy B 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8371378 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature