2009/09/01 by James C. Lamsdell, Simon J. Braddy, O. Erik Tetlie · 2 citations
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology · Earth and Planetary Sciences · Agricultural and Biological Sciences · #Insect and Arachnid Ecology and Behavior #Subterranean biodiversity and taxonomy #Fossil Insects in Amber #Telson #Devonian #Paleontology #Appendage #Carapace #Carboniferous #Biology #Late Devonian extinction #Viséan #Paleozoic #Genus #Key (lock) #Permian #SPINE (molecular biology) #Zoology #Ecology #Crustacean
paper · doi:10.1111/j.1475-4983.2009.00902.x
openalex publication_date 2009/09/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/06/03
Abstract: Stylonurid eurypterids (Arthropoda: Chelicerata) include some of the largest known arthropods – bizarre sweep‐feeding hibbertopterids from the Carboniferous to end‐Permian. New material of Drepanopterus abonensis , a stylonurid from the Late Devonian (Famennian) of Portishead, south‐west England, offers key insights into this genus and its affinities. A redescription utilising the new material enables D. abonensis to be assigned as basal member of the Superfamily Hibbertopteroidea, the large‐sweep‐feeding forms, possessing a cleft metastoma and blades (modified blunt spines) on their anterior prosomal appendages. D. abonensis also shares characters such as a clavate telson and median ridge on the carapace with the proposed hibbertopteroid sister group the Kokomopteroidea. Hibbertopteroid eurypterids are the most long‐ranging stylonurids, surviving the decline and extinction of the other eurypterid families in the Late Devonian, their survival probably because of their sweep‐feeding mode of life, which was not in direct competition with their eurypterine relatives and other predators.