Page, A. A. and Wilby, P. R. and Mellish, C. J. T. and Williams, M. and Zalasiewicz, J. A. (2008) A reassessment of Dawsonia Nicholson: linguliform brachiopods, crustacean tail-pieces and a problematicum rather than graptolite ovarian vesicles. Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh: Earth Sciences, 99 (3-4). pp. 251-266. DOI https://doi.org/10.1017/S175569100900704X
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Abstract
Though little is known of the graptoloid reproductive mechanism, graptolites with putatively sac-like appendages, supposedly ovarian vesicles, have been known from the Moffat Shales Group, Southern Uplands, Scotland, for over 150 years. Locally, these co-occur with isolated, two-dimensional, discoidal or ovato-triangular fossils. In the 1870s, Nicholson interpreted these isolated fossils as being graptoloid ‘egg-sacs’ detached from their parent and existing as free-swimming bodies. He assigned them to his genus Dawsonia, though the name was pre-occupied by a trilobite, and named four species: D. campanulata, D. acuminata, D. rotunda and D. tenuistriata. A reassessment of Nicholson’s type material from the Silurian of Moffatdale, Scotland, and from the Ordovician Lévis Formation of Quebec, Canada, shows that Dawsonia Nicholson comprises the inarticulate brachiopods Acrosaccus? rotundus, Paterula? tenuistriata and Discotreta cf. levisensis, the tail-piece of the crustacean Caryocaris acuminata and the problematic fossil D. campanulata. Though D. campanulata resembles sac-like graptolite appendages, morphometric analysis reveals the similarity to be superficial and the systematic position of this taxon remains uncertain. There is no definite evidence of either D. campanulata or sac-like graptoloid appendages having had a reproductive function.
Item Type: | Article |
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Uncontrolled Keywords: | 08AREP IA56 2008 P |
Subjects: | 04 - Palaeobiology |
Divisions: | 04 - Palaeobiology |
Journal or Publication Title: | Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh: Earth Sciences |
Volume: | 99 |
Page Range: | pp. 251-266 |
Identification Number: | https://doi.org/10.1017/S175569100900704X |
Depositing User: | Sarah Humbert |
Date Deposited: | 16 Feb 2009 13:03 |
Last Modified: | 23 Jul 2013 10:08 |
URI: | http://eprints.esc.cam.ac.uk/id/eprint/572 |
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