Sclerite fusion in the problematic early Cambrian spine-like fossil Stoibostrombus from South Australia

 

Authors: Skovsted CB, Brock GA, Topper TP

Published in: Bulletin of Geosciences, volume 86, issue 3; pages: 651 - 658; Received 15 October 2010; Accepted in revised form 17 April 2011; Online 14 July 2011

Keywords: Early Cambrian, South Australia, scleritome, Ecdysozoa, Palaeoscolecida,

full text (PDF, 1.64 MB)

Export to RIS

 

Abstract

New collections of the problematic spine like fossil Stoibostrombus crenulatus Conway Morris and Bengtson from the Mt. Scott Range and Wilkawillina Gorge in the central Flinders Ranges, South Australia contain fused sclerite composites. In each fused specimen the spines are merged along their lateral margins and the orientation of the spines is almost identical. These new specimens confirm that Stoibostrombus spines were dermal sclerites, arranged in lateral pairs or transverse rows. The nature of the animal secreting the spines remains elusive, but available evidence suggest that it was an ecdysozoan animal, possibly a palaeoscolecid worm.

References

Bengtson, S., Conway Morris, S., Cooper, B.J., Jell, P.A. & Runnegar, B.N. 1990. Early Cambrian fossils from South Australia. Memoirs of the Association of Australasian Palaeontologists 9, 1-364.

Brock, G.A., Alexander, E.M., Paterson, J.R., Jago, J.B. & Gatehouse, C.G. 2006. Mt Scott Range and Ajax Mine, 40-43. In Jago, J.B. &Wenlong Zhang (eds) South Australia 2006. XI International Conference of the Cambrian Stage Subdivision Working Group, Geological Society of Australia, South Australian Division, Adelaide.

Brock, G.A. & Cooper, B.J. 1993. Shelly fossils from the Early Cambrian (Toyonian) Wirrealpa, Aroona Creek, and Ramsay Limestones of South Australia. Journal of Paleontology 67, 758-787.View article

Chen Junyuan, Hou Xian-guang&Lu Haozhi 1989. Early Cambrian netted scale-bearing worm-like sea animal. Acta Palaeontologica Sinica 28, 1-16. [in Chinese with English summary]

Chen Junyuan, Zhou Guiquing & Ramsköld, L. 1995. The Cambrian lobopodian Microdictyon sinicum. Bulletin of the National Museum of Natural Science 5, 1-93.

Clarke, J.D.A. 1986a. Subdivision of the lower part of the Wilkawillina Limestone, eastern Flinders Ranges. Quarterly Geological Notes, Geological Survey of South Australia 97, 12-16.

Clarke, J.D.A. 1986b. Stratigraphy and sedimentology of the upper part of the Wilkawillina Limestone, Wilkawillina Gorge, Flinders Ranges. Quarterly Geological Notes, Geological Survey of South Australia 100, 2-7.

Conway Morris, S. 2008. The cuticular structure of the 495-Myr-old type species of the fossil worm Palaeoscolex, P. piscatorum (?Priapulida). Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 119, 69-82.View article

Daily, B. 1956. The Cambrian in South Australia, 91-147. In Rodgers, J. (ed.) El Sistema Cambrico, su paleogeografia y el problema de su base, Report 20th International Geological Congress, Mexico 2.

Donovan, S.K. & Paul, C.R.C. 1985. A possible new armoured worm from the Tremadoc of Sheinton, Shropshire. Proceedings of the Geological Association 96, 87-91.View article

Gedik, I. 1977. Conodont stratigraphy in the Middle Taurus. Bulletin of the Geological Society of Turkey 20, 35-48. [in Turkish with English abstract]

Gravestock, D.I. 1984. Archaeocyatha from lower parts of the Lower Cambrian carbonate sequence in South Australia. Memoir of the Association of Australasian Palaeontologists 2, 1-139.

Gravestock, D.I., Alexander, E.M., Demidenko, Y.E., Esakova, N.V., Holmer, L.E., Jago, J.B., Lin Tianrui, Melnikova, L.M., Parkhaev, P.Y., Rozanov, A.Y., Ushatinskaya, G.T., Zang Wenlong, Zhegallo, E.A. & Zhuravlev, A.Y. 2001. The Cambrian Biostratigraphy of the Stansbury Basin, South Australia. Transaction of the Palaeontological Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences 282, 1-344.

Gravestock, D.I. & Shergold, J.H. 2001. Australian Early and Middle Cambrian sequence biostratigraphy with implications for species diversity and correlation, 105-136. In Zhuravlev, A.Y. & Riding, R. (eds) The Ecology of the Cambrian radiation. Columbia University Press.

Hinz, I., Kraft, P., Mergl, M. & Müller, K.J. 1990. The problematic Hadimopanella, Kaimenella, Milaculum and Utahphospha identified as sclerites of Palaeoscolecida. Lethaia 23, 217-221.View article

Märss, T. 1988. Early Palaeozoic hadimopanellids of Estonia and Kirgizia (USSR). Proceedings of the Academy of Sciences of the Estonian SSR, Geology 37, 10-17.View article

Missarzhevsky, V.V. 1977. Konodonty (?) i fosfatnye problematiki kembriya Mongolii i Sibiri, 10-19. In Tatarinov, L.P. et al. (eds) Bespozvonochnye Paleozoya Mongolii. Nauka, Moscow. [in Russian]

Missarzhevsky, V.V. 1989. Drevnejshie skeletnye okamenelosti i stratigrafiya pogranichnykh tolshch dokembriya i kembriya. Trudy Geologicheskogo Instituta 443, 1-238. [in Russian]

Müller, K.J. & Miller, J.F. 1976. The problematic microfossil Utahphospha from the Upper Cambrian of the western United States. Lethaia 9, 391-395.View article

Peel, J.S. 1991. The Classes Tergomya and Helcionellida, and early molluscan evolution. Gronlands Geologiske Undersogelse, Bulletin 161, 11-65.

Qian Yi&Bengtson, S. 1989. Palaeontology and biostratigraphy of the Early Cambrian Meishucunian Stage in Yunnan Province, South China. Fossils and Strata 24, 1-156.

Rozanov, A.Y., Missarzhevsky, V.V., Volkova, N.A., Voronova, L.C., Krylov, I.N., Keller, B.M., Korolyuk, I.K., Lendzion, K.,Michniak, R., Pykhova, N.G. & Sidorov, A.D. 1969. Tommotskij yarus i problema nizhnej granitsy kembriya. Trudy Geologocheskogo Instituta Akademia Nauk SSSR 206, 1-380. [in Russian]

Skovsted, C.B. 2005. A carapace of the bradoriid arthropod Mongolitubulus from the Early Cambrian of Greenland. GFF 127, 217-220.View article

Skovsted, C.B. 2006. Small shelly fauna from the Upper Lower Cambrian Bastion and Ella formations, North-East Greenland. Journal of Paleontology 80, 1087-1112.View article

Skovsted, C.B., Brock, G.A., Holmer, L.E. & Paterson, J.R. 2009a. First report of the Early Cambrian stem group brachiopod Mickwitzia from East Gondwana. Gondwana Research 16, 145-150.View article

Skovsted, C.B., Brock, G.A., Paterson, J.R., Holmer, L.E. & Budd, G.E. 2008. The scleritome of Eccentrotheca from the Lower Cambrian of South Australia: lophophorate affinities and implications for tommotiid phylogeny. Geology 36, 171-174.View article

Skovsted, C.B., Brock, G.A., Topper, T.P., Paterson, J.R. & Holmer, L.E. 2011. Scleritome construction, biofacies, biostratigraphy and systematics of the tommotiid Eccentrotheca helenia sp. nov. from the early Cambrian of South Australia. Palaeontology 54, 253-286.View article

Skovsted, C.B., Holmer, L.E., Larsson, C.M., Högström, A.E.S., Brock, G.A., Topper, T.P., Balthasar, U., Petterson Stolk, S. & Paterson, J.R. 2009b. The scleritome of Paterimitra: an Early Cambrian stem group brachiopod from South Australia. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B 276, 1651-1656.View article

Skovsted, C.B. & Peel, J.S. 2001. The problematic fossil Mongolitubulus from the Lower Cambrian of Greenland. Bulletin of the Geological Society of Denmark 48, 135-147.View article

Skovsted, C.B. & Peel, J.S. 2011. Hyolithellus in life position from the Lower Cambrian of North Greenland. Journal of Paleontology 85, 37-47.View article

Topper, T.P., Brock, G.A., Skovsted, C.B. & Paterson, J.R. 2009. Shelly fossils from the lower Cambrian Pararaia bunyerooensis Zone, Flinders Ranges, South Australia. Memoirs of the Association of Australasian Palaeontologists 37, 199-246.

Topper, T.P., Brock, G.A., Skovsted, C.B. & Paterson, J.R. 2010a. Palaeoscolecid scleritome fragments with Hadimopanella plates from the Early Cambrian of South Australia. Geological Magazine 147, 86-97.View article

Topper, T.P., Brock, G.A., Skovsted, C.B. & Paterson, J.R. 2011. Microdictyon plates from the lower Cambrian Ajax Limestone of South Australia: Implications for species taxonomy and diversity. Alcheringa, online only.View article

Topper, T.P., Skovsted, C.B., Brock, G.A. & Paterson, J.R. 2007. New bradoriids from the lower Cambrian Mernmerna Formation, South Australia: systematics, biostratigraphy and biogeography. Memoirs of the Association of Australasian Palaeontologists 33, 67-100.

Topper, T.P., Skovsted, C.B., Brock, G.A. & Paterson, J.R. 2010b. The oldest bivalved arthropods from the early Cambrian of South Australia: systematics, biostratigraphy and biogeography. Gondwana Research 19, 310-326.View article