Open AccessA xandarellid artiopodan from Morocco – a middle Cambrian link between soft-bodied euarthropod communities in North Africa and South China
Author(s) -
Javier OrtegaHernández,
Abdelfattah Azizi,
Thomas Wong Hearing,
Thomas H. P. Harvey,
Gregory D. Edgecombe,
Ahmid Hafid,
Khadija El Hariri
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
scientific reports
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.24
H-Index - 213
ISSN - 2045-2322
DOI - 10.1038/srep42616
Subject(s) - gondwana , trilobite , paleozoic , biota , paleontology , geology , china , laurasia , ordovician , geography , ecology , biology , archaeology , structural basin
Xandarellida is a well-defined clade of Lower Palaeozoic non-biomineralized artiopodans that is exclusively known from the early Cambrian (Stage 3) Chengjiang biota of South China. Here we describe a new member of this group, Xandarella mauretanica sp. nov., from the middle Cambrian (Stage 5) Tatelt Formation of Morocco, making this the first non-trilobite Cambrian euarthropod known from North Africa. X. mauretanica sp. nov. represents the youngest occurrence of Xandarellida – extending its stratigraphic range by approximately 10 million years – and expands the palaeobiogeographic distribution of the group to the high southern palaeolatitudes of West Gondwana. The new species provides insights into the lightly sclerotized ventral anatomy of Xandarellida, and offers stratigraphically older evidence for a palaeobiogeographic connection between Burgess Shale-type euarthropod communities in North Africa and South China, relative to the (Tremadocian) Fezouata biota.