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- Title
ICHNOLOGICAL INSIGHTS INTO MITRATE PALAEOBIOLOGY.
- Authors
Rahman, Imran A.; Jefferies, Richard P. S.; Südkamp, Wouter H.; Smith, Ru D. A.
- Abstract
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.
- Subjects
HUNSRUCK Shale (Germany); GERMANY; FOSSIL echinodermata; TRACE fossils; DEVONIAN paleontology; PALEOBIOLOGY; PHYLOGENY
- Publication
Palaeontology, 2009, Vol 52, Issue 1, p127
- ISSN
0031-0239
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1111/j.1475-4983.2008.00838.x