Pruemopterus
Pruemopterus | |
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Illustration of PWL 2014/5186-LSb, the counterpart portion of the holotype specimen of P. salgadoi | |
Scientific classification | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Arthropoda |
Subphylum: | Chelicerata |
Order: | †Eurypterida |
Superfamily: | †Adelophthalmoidea |
Family: | †Adelophthalmidae |
Genus: | †Pruemopterus Poschmann, 2020 |
Species: | †P. salgadoi
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Binomial name | |
†Pruemopterus salgadoi Poschmann, 2020
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Pruemopterus is a genus of eurypterid, an extinct group of aquatic arthropods. The type and only species of Pruemopterus, P. salgadoi, is known only from a single fossil specimen discovered in geological deposits of Early Devonian age in Germany. The name of the genus is derived from the Prüm river and the surrounding Prüm valley, which contains the finding place of the fossil, and the Ancient Greek πτερόν (pteron, "wing"), referring to the eurypterid swimming paddles, and the species name honors the Brazilian photographer and photojournalist Sebastião Salgado.
Pruemopterus was a very small adelophthalmid eurypterid, with the only known specimen measuring about 2.5 centimeters (0.98 in) in length. Although superficially similar to the related genus Parahughmilleria, Pruemopterus can be distinguished from other adelophthalmids by several features, most notably its wide and vaguely rectangular carapace (head plate) and its rounded, rather than elongated, eyes. Pruemopterus lived alongside other Early Devonian animals, including several other eurypterid genera, in a shallow brackish to fresh water environment.
Description
Pruemopterus was a very small
History of research
The only known specimen of Pruemopterus was discovered by the German paleontologist Markus J. Poschmann in the 1980s. It was discovered in a now disused sandstone quarry within the municipality of Hermespand, close to the village itself and to that of Willwerath, in Weinsheim, Germany. The fossil deposits the specimen was uncovered in belong to the Klerf Formation and are of Early Devonian age, specifically the uppermost Lower Emsian epoch.[1]
The fossil was not formally described by Poschmann until 2020, when he determined that the combination of traits displayed suggested that it was an adelophthalmid eurypterid similar to Parahughmilleria, known from the same deposits, but differing in features of its carapace, opisthosoma and telson. Poschmann thus named the new genus and species Pruemopterus salgadoi to accommodate the specimen. The specimen is today housed at the Generaldirektion Kulturelles Erbe, Direktion Landesarchäologie/Erdgeschichte in Koblenz, Germany, and is part of the State Collection of Natural History of Rhineland-Palatinate. Originally given the provisional designation 355-D by Poschmann, the specimen now has the repository number PWL 2014/5186-LS a,b (a being the part and b being the counterpart of the compression fossil).[1]
The generic name Pruemopterus is derived from the Prüm river and the surrounding Prüm valley, wherein Hermespand and Willwerath are located, and the suffix '-opterus', derived from the Ancient Greek πτερόν (pteron, "wing"), often used in naming eurypterids due to the broad, wing-like swimming appendages of the eurypterine suborder. The species name salgadoi honors the Brazilian photographer and photojournalist Sebastião Salgado.[1]
Classification
Poschmann referred Pruemopterus to the eurypterid family Adelophthalmidae, the only family within the superfamily
Poschmann also noted in his description of the
Paleoecology
The deposits in which the Pruemopterus fossil was discovered are part of an Early Devonian fossil locality called the "Fossil-Lagerstätte Willwerath" that has yielded numerous early land plants, arthropods and vertebrates. Among the
See also
References
- ^ S2CID 221478876.
- ^ a b "Willwerath (Mainz collection) (Devonian of Germany)". Paleobiology Database. Retrieved 22 January 2024.
- S2CID 129716740.