Category
page 1Ordovician arthropods
Aegirocassis
Aegirocassis (″Aegir's helmet″) is an extinct genus of giant radiodont arthropod belonging to the family Hurdiidae that lived 480 million years ago during the early Ordovician in the Fezouata Formation of Morocco. It is known by a single species, Aegirocassis benmoulai. Van Roy initiated scientific study of the fossil, the earliest known of a "giant" filter-feeder discovered to date. Aegirocassis is considered to have evolved from early predatory radiodonts. This animal is characterized by its long, forward facing head sclerite, and the endites on its frontal appendages that bore copious amoun
Megalograptidae
Megalograptidae are a family of eurypterids, an extinct group of aquatic chelicerate arthropods commonly known as "sea scorpions".
Chasmataspidida
Chasmataspidids, sometime referred to as chasmataspids, are a group of extinct chelicerate arthropods that form the order Chasmataspidida. Chasmataspidids are probably related to horseshoe crabs (Xiphosura) and/or sea scorpions (Eurypterida), while more recent studies suggest that they form a clade (Dekatriata) with Eurypterida and Arachnida. Chasmataspidids are known sporadically in the fossil record through to the mid-Devonian, with possible evidence suggesting that they were also present during the late Cambrian. Chasmataspidids are most easily recognised by having an opisthosoma divided in
Onychopterella
Onychopterella ( , from Ancient Greek: ὄνῠξ (ónyx), "claw", and πτερόν (pteron), "wing") is a genus of predatory eurypterid ("sea scorpion"), an extinct group of aquatic arthropods. Fossils of Onychopterella have been discovered in deposits from the Late Ordovician to the Late Silurian. The genus contains three species: O. kokomoensis, the type species, from the Early Pridoli epoch of Indiana; O. pumilus, from the Early Llandovery epoch of Illinois, both from the United States; and O. augusti, from the Late Hirnantian to Early Rhuddanian stages of South Africa.
Pseudoangustidontus
Pseudoangustidontus (meaning "false Angustidontus") is a genus of hurdiid (peytoiid) radiodont from the Lower Ordovician of Morocco. This genus includes two described species, '''Pseudoangustidontus duplospineus and Pseudoangustidontus izidigua', which both belong to the smaller Aegirocassisinae subfamily, however, a third unnamed species is also known. This animal is only known from the Fezouata Formation, a lower Ordovician fossil site in Morocco that is of Konservat-Lagerstätten status, meaning that the fossils from this site are exceptionally well preserved. This taxon was first described
Asaphus kowalewskii
species of trilobite