Open AccessNew opabiniid diversifies the weirdest wonders of the euarthropod stem group
Author(s) -
Stephen Pates,
Jessica Wolfe,
Rudy LeroseyAubril,
Allison C. Daley,
Javier OrtegaHernández
Publication year - 2022
Publication title -
proceedings - royal society. biological sciences/proceedings - royal society. biological sciences
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.342
H-Index - 253
eISSN - 1471-2954
pISSN - 0962-8452
DOI - 10.1098/rspb.2021.2093
Subject(s) - devonian , phylogenetic tree , group (periodic table) , evolutionary biology , paleontology , visualization , biology , geography , zoology , computer science , data mining , chemistry , biochemistry , organic chemistry , gene
Once considered ‘weird wonders’ of the Cambrian, the emblematic Burgess Shale animalsAnomalocaris andOpabinia are now recognized as lower stem-group euarthropods and have provided crucial data for constraining the polarity of key morphological characters in the group.Anomalocaris and its relatives (radiodonts) had worldwide distribution and survived until at least the Devonian. However, despite intense study,Opabinia remains the only formally described opabiniid to date. Here we reinterpret a fossil from the Wheeler Formation of Utah as a new opabiniid,Utaurora comosa nov. gen. et sp. By visualizing the sample of phylogenetic topologies in treespace, our results fortify support for the position ofU. comosa beyond the nodal support traditionally applied. Our phylogenetic evidence expands opabiniids to multiple Cambrian stages. Our results underscore the power of treespace visualization for resolving imperfectly preserved fossils and expanding the known diversity and spatio-temporal ranges within the euarthropod lower stem group.