Early
Devonian stylonurine eurypterids from Arctic Canada
James
C. Lamsdell1,2, Simon J. Braddy1,
Elizabeth J. Loeffler1
and David L. Dineley1
1 Department of Earth Sciences, University
of Bristol, Wills Memorial Building, Queen's Road, BRISTOL
BS8 1RJ
2 Current address: Paleontological
Institute, University of Kansas, 1475 Jayhawk Boulevard,
Lawrence, KS 66045, USA
Two new stylonurine eurypterids are described from the Peel
Sound Formation (Early Devonian, Lochkovian) of the northern
coast of Prince of Wales Island, Nunavut, Arctic Canada.
Associations including pteraspids and ostracodes indicate
a fluvial depositional environment. An almost complete stylonurid,
Pagea plotnicki sp. nov., is recognized by its
large size and lack of vaulting on the carapace, and it
provides evidence that Stylonurus and Pagea
are sister-taxa. Also, a smaller incomplete rhenopterid
assigned to Leiopterella tetliei gen. et sp. nov.,
is characterized by its broad turbinate carapace and lack
of cuticular sculpture. This assemblage provides the first
Canadian record of Pagea, and the youngest occurrence
of a rhenopterid outside the Rheno-Hercynian Terrane, indicating
that these taxa were more geographically widespread than
previously supposed.
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