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ICHNOLOGICAL INSIGHTS INTO MITRATE PALAEOBIOLOGY
Author(s) -
RAHMAN IMRAN A.,
JEFFERIES RICHARD P. S.,
SÜDKAMP WOUTER H.,
SMITH RU D. A.
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
palaeontology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.69
H-Index - 63
eISSN - 1475-4983
pISSN - 0031-0239
DOI - 10.1111/j.1475-4983.2008.00838.x
Subject(s) - appendage , devonian , paleontology , trace fossil , echinoderm , geology , paleobiology , group (periodic table) , evolutionary biology , biology , physics , quantum mechanics
Mitrates are a controversial group of extinct deuterostomes; there is little agreement over their affinities, functional morphology or even the orientation of their upper and lower surfaces. Four slabs of slate from the Lower Devonian Hunsrück Slate (Bundenbach, Germany) are here described, showing trace fossils ( Vadichnites transversus igen. et isp. nov.) associated with the mitrate Rhenocystis latipedunculata . These new findings clearly demonstrate that the mitrate appendage was used in locomotion and that this movement took place appendage‐first. Such a functional interpretation suggests that mitrates were oriented with the flat body surface upwards in life and argues against a phylogenetic position in the echinoderm crown‐group.