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Sarotrocercus

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Extinct genus of Cambrian organisms

Sarotrocercus
Temporal range: Burgess Shale PreꞒ Ꞓ O S D C P T J K Pg N ↓
Holotype
Reconstruction of Sarotrocercus
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: incertae sedis
Genus: †Sarotrocercus
Species: †S. oblitus
Binomial name
†Sarotrocercus oblitus
Whittington, 1981

Sarotrocercus is a small Cambrian arthropod known from Burgess shale, reaching a centimetre or two in length (0.39–0.79 in). Sarotrocercus is only known from 7 specimens. It may lie in the arthropod crown group, and a recent study has revised some points of its original description.

Morphology

Sarotrocercus had a head shield followed by a trunk of 10 or 11 segments and a telson featuring a series of spines on the end. A pair of big eyes at the end of stalks ventrally emerged from the front of the head. The head bore two pairs of sturdy appendages that are armed with rows of inner spines. At least the anterior 9 trunk segments each possess a pair of appendages, which are only known by lobe-like exopods that are fringed with setae.

Ecology

In the original description, Sarotrocercus had been interpreted as a pelagic, nektonic animal that swam freely on its back, moving perhaps through movements of the trunk appendages and the action of its long tail tuft. This was mainly based on the rarity of the specimens, as the Burgess Shale contains few swimming organisms; the submarine landslides that buried organisms mainly smothered benthic and nektobenthic organisms. However, based on the redescription by Haug et al. 2011, Sarotrocercus may had been benthic or at least swimming close to the seafloor, as the robust head appendages rather suggest a grasping or raking function.

External links

References

  1. Briggs, D. E. G.; Erwin, D. H.; Collier, F. J. (1995), Fossils of the Burgess Shale, Washington: Smithsonian Inst Press, ISBN 1-56098-659-X, OCLC 231793738
  2. ^ Haug, J.T.; Maas, A.; Haug, C.; Waloszek, D. (2011). "Sarotrocercus oblitus - Small arthropod with great impact on the understanding of arthropod evolution?". Bulletin of Geosciences: 725–7??. doi:10.3140/bull.geosci.1283.
  3. ^ Whittington, H.B. (1981). "Rare Arthropods from the Burgess Shale, Middle Cambrian, British Columbia". Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological Sciences. 292 (1060). The Royal Society: 329–357. Bibcode:1981RSPTB.292..329W. doi:10.1098/rstb.1981.0033. JSTOR 2395674.
  4. Gabbott, S.E.; Zalasiewicz, J.; Collins, D. (2008). "Sedimentation of the Phyllopod Bed within the Cambrian Burgess Shale Formation of British Columbia". Journal of the Geological Society. 165 (1): 307–318. Bibcode:2008JGSoc.165..307G. doi:10.1144/0016-76492007-023. S2CID 128685811.
Taxon identifiers
Sarotrocercus
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