Hostname: page-component-7f64f4797f-pmsz9 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-11-03T05:32:40.373Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Stylonurine eurypterids from the Strud locality (Upper Devonian, Belgium): new insights into the ecology of freshwater sea scorpions

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 January 2019

James C Lamsdell Open the ORCID record for James C Lamsdell [Opens in a new window] ,
Linda Lagebro ,
Gregory D Edgecombe ,
Graham E Budd  and
Pierre Gueriau
James C Lamsdell*
Affiliation:
Department of Geology and Geography, West Virginia University, 98 Beechurst Avenue, Morgantown, WV 26505, USA
Linda Lagebro
Affiliation:
Department of Earth Sciences, Palaeobiology, Uppsala University, Villavägen 16, Uppsala SE-752 36, Sweden
Gregory D Edgecombe
Affiliation:
Department of Earth Sciences, The Natural History Museum, Cromwell Road, London SW7 5BD, UK
Graham E Budd
Affiliation:
Department of Earth Sciences, Palaeobiology, Uppsala University, Villavägen 16, Uppsala SE-752 36, Sweden
Pierre Gueriau
Affiliation:
Institute of Earth Sciences, University of Lausanne, Géopolis, Lausanne CH-1015, Switzerland
*
Email: james.lamsdell@mail.wvu.edu
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The Upper Famennian (Upper Devonian) Strud locality has yielded very abundant and diversified flora as well as vertebrate and arthropod faunas. The arthropod fauna, mostly recovered from fine shales deposited in a calm, confined floodplain habitat including temporary pools, has delivered a putative insect and various crustaceans including eumalacostracans and notostracan, spinicaudatan and anostracan branchiopods. Here we present the Strud eurypterids, consisting of semi-articulated juvenile specimens assigned to Hardieopteridae recovered from the pool and floodplain deposits, as well as larger isolated fragments of potential adults recovered from stratigraphically lower, coarser dark sandy layers indicative of a higher-energy fluvial environment. The Strud fossils strongly suggest that, as proposed for some Carboniferous eurypterids, juvenile freshwater eurypterids inhabited sheltered nursery pools and migrated to higher-energy river systems as they matured.

Keywords

FamennianHardieopteridaefloodplain habitatstemporary poolsjuvenile eurypteridsnursery

Information

Type
Original Article
Information
Geological Magazine , Volume 156 , Issue 10 , October 2019 , pp. 1708 - 1714
Copyright
© Cambridge University Press 2019 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Andrews, HE, Brower, JC, Gould, SJ and Reyment, RA (1974) Growth and variation in Eurypterus remipes Dekay. Bulletin of the Geological Institution of the University of Uppsala 4, 81–114.Google Scholar
Botton, ML, Tankersley, RA and Loveland, RE (2010) Developmental ecology of the American horseshoe crab Limulus polyphemus. Current Zoology 56, 550–62.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Braddy, SJ (2001) Eurypterid palaeoecology: palaeobiological, ichnological and comparative evidence for a ‘mass-moult–mate’ hypothesis. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 172, 115–32.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brower, JC and Veinus, J (1974) The statistical zap versus the shotgun approach. Mathematical Geology 6, 311–32.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brower, JC and Veinus, J (1978) Multivariate analysis of allometry using point coordinates. Journal of Paleontology 52, 1037–53.Google Scholar
Burmeister, H (1843) Die Organisation der Trilobiten, aus ihren lebenden Verwandten entwickelt, nebst einer systematischen Uebersicht aller zeither beschriebenen Arten. Berlin: Reimer, 147 pp. + 6 pls.Google Scholar
Clément, G, Ahlberg, PE, Blieck, A, Blom, H, Clack, JA, Poty, E, Thorez, J and Janvier, P (2004) Devonian tetrapod from Western Europe. Nature 427, 412–13.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Clément, G and Boisvert, CA (2006) Lohest’s true and false ‘Devonian amphibians’: evidence for the rhynchodipterid lungfish Soederberghia in the Famennian of Belgium. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 26, 276–83.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cuggy, MJ (1994) Ontogenetic variation in Silurian eurypterids from Ontario and New York State. Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences 31, 728–32.Google Scholar
Denayer, J, Prestianni, C, Gueriau, P, Olive, S and Clément, G (2016) Stratigraphy and depositional environments of the Late Famennian (Late Devonian) of Southern Belgium and characterization of the Strud locality. Geological Magazine 153, 112–27.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Diener, C (1924) Fossilium catalogus I: animalia, Pars 25: Eurypterida. Berlin: Junk, 28 pp.Google Scholar
Dunlop, JA and Lamsdell, JC (2017) Segmentation and tagmosis in Chelicerata. Arthropod Structure & Development 46, 395–418.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ehlers, GM (1935) A new eurypterid from the Upper Devonian of Pennsylvania. Contribution from the Museum of Paleontology, University of Michigan 4, 291–5.Google Scholar
Fraipont, J (1889) Euryptérides nouveaux du Dévonien supérieur de Belgique (Psammites du Condroz). Annales de la Société géologique de Belgique 17, 53–62.Google Scholar
Garrouste, R, Clément, G, Nel, P, Engel, MS, Grandcolas, P, D’Haese, C, Lagebro, L, Denayer, J, Gueriau, P, Lafaite, P, Olive, S, Prestianni, C and Nel, A (2012) A complete insect from the Late Devonian. Nature 488, 82–5.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Garrouste, R, Clément, G, Nel, P, Engel, MS, Grandcolas, P, D’Haese, C, Lagebro, L, Denayer, J, Gueriau, P, Lafaite, P, Olive, S, Prestianni, C and Nel, A (2013) Garrouste etal. reply. Nature 494, E4–5.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gueriau, P, Charbonnier, S and Clément, G (2014 a) First decapod crustaceans in a Late Devonian continental ecosystem. Palaeontology 57, 1203–13.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gueriau, P, Charbonnier, S and Clément, G (2014 b) Angustidontid crustaceans from the Late Devonian of Strud (Namur Province, Belgium): insights into the origin of Decapoda. Neues Jahrbuch für Geologie und Paläontologie 273, 327–37.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gueriau, P, Rabet, N, Clément, G, Lagebro, L, Vannier, J, Briggs, DEG, Charbonnier, S, Olive, S and Béthoux, O (2016) A 365-million-year-old freshwater community reveals morphological and ecological stasis in branchiopod crustaceans. Current Biology 26, 383–90.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gueriau, P, Rabet, N and Du Tien Hat, E (2018) The Strud crustacean fauna (Late Devonian, Belgium): updated review and palaeoecology of an early continental ecosystem. Earth and Environmental Science Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 107, 79–90.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hall, J (1884) Description of a new species of Stylonurus from the Catskill Group. In 36th Annual Report of the New York State Museum of Natural History, pp. 76–7. Albany, NY: University of the State of New York.Google Scholar
Heymons, R (1901) Die Entwicklungsgeschichte der Scolopender. Zoologica 13, 1–244.Google Scholar
Hörnschemeyer, T, Haug, J, Béthoux, O, Beutel, RG, Charbonnier, S, Hegna, TA, Koch, M, Rust, J, Wedmann, S, Bradler, S and Willmann, R (2013) Is Strudiella a Devonian insect? Nature 494, E3–4.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Jeram, AJ and Selden, PA (1994) Eurypterids from the Viséan of East Kirkton, West Lothian, Scotland. Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh: Earth Sciences 84, 301–8.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kjellesvig-Waering, EN (1966) A revision of the families and genera of the Stylonuracea (Eurypterida). Fieldiana Geology 12, 85–106.Google Scholar
Lagebro, L, Gueriau, P, Hegna, TA, Rabet, N and Budd, GE (2015) The oldest notostracan (Upper Devonian Strud locality, Belgium). Palaeontology 58, 497–509.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lamsdell, JC (2011) The eurypterid Stoermeropterus conicus from the Lower Silurian Pentland Hills, Scotland. Monograph of the Palaeontographical Society, London 165, 1–84, pls. 1–15.Google Scholar
Lamsdell, JC (2013) Redescription of Drepanopterus pentlandicus Laurie 1892, the earliest known mycteropoid (Chelicerata: Eurypterida) from the early Silurian (Llandovery) of the Pentland Hills, Scotland. Earth and Environmental Science Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 103, 77–103.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lamsdell, JC (2016) Horseshoe crab phylogeny and independent colonizations of fresh water: ecological invasion as a driver for morphological innovation. Palaeontology 59, 181–94.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lamsdell, JC and Braddy, SJ (2010) Cope’s Rule and Romer’s theory: patterns of diversity and gigantism in eurypterids and Paleozoic vertebrates. Biology Letters 6, 265–9.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lamsdell, JC, Braddy, SJ, Loeffler, EJ and Dineley, DL (2010 a) Early Devonian stylonurine eurypterids from Arctic Canada. Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences 47, 1405–15.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lamsdell, JC, Braddy, SJ and Tetlie, OE (2009) Redescription of Drepanopterus abonensis (Chelicerata: Eurypterida: Stylonurina) from the Late Devonian of Portishead, UK. Palaeontology 52, 1113–39.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lamsdell, JC, Braddy, SJ and Tetlie, OE (2010 b) The systematics and phylogeny of the Stylonurina (Arthropoda: Chelicerata: Eurypterida). Journal of Systematic Palaeontology 8, 49–61.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lamsdell, JC and Briggs, DEG (2017) The first diploaspidid (Chelicerata: Chasmataspidida) from North America (Silurian, Bertie Group, New York State) is the oldest species of Diploaspis. Geological Magazine 154, 175–80.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lamsdell, JC, Briggs, DEG, Liu, HP, Witzke, BJ and McKay, RM (2015) The oldest described eurypterid: a giant Middle Ordovician (Darriwilian) megalograptid from the Winneshiek Lagerstätte of Iowa. BMC Evolutionary Biology, 15, 169. doi: 10.1186/s12862-015-0443-9.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lamsdell, JC, Congreve, CR, Hopkins, MJ, Krug, AZ and Patzkowsky, ME (2017) Phylogenetic paleoecology: tree-thinking and ecology in deep time. Trends in Ecology and Evolution 32, 452–63.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lamsdell, JC, Hoşgör, İ and Selden, PA (2013) A new Ordovician eurypterid (Arthropoda: Chelicerata) from southeast Turkey: evidence for a cryptic Ordovician record of Eurypterida. Gondwana Research 23, 354–66.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lamsdell, JC and Selden, PA (2013) Babes in the wood – a unique window into sea scorpion ontogeny. BMC Evolutionary Biology 13, 98.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lamsdell, JC and Selden, PA (2017) From success to persistence: identifying an evolutionary regime shift in the diverse Paleozoic aquatic arthropod group Eurypterida, driven by the Devonian biotic crisis. Evolution 71, 95–110.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Laurie, M (1892) On some eurypterid remains from the Upper Silurian rocks of the Pentland Hills. Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh: Earth Sciences 37, 151–61.Google Scholar
Lehman, JP (1959) Les Dipneustes du Dévonien supérieur du Groenland. Meddelelser om Grønland 160, 1–58.Google Scholar
Olive, S (2015) Devonian antiarch placoderms from Belgium revisited. Acta Palaeontologica Polonica 60, 711–31.Google Scholar
Olive, S, Ahlberg, PE, Pernègre, VN, Poty, É, Steurbaut, É and Clément, G (2016 a) New discoveries of tetrapods (ichthyostegid-like and whatcheeriid-like) in the Famennian (Late Devonian) localities of Strud and Becco (Belgium). Palaeontology 59, 827–40.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Olive, S, Clément, G, Daeschler, EB and Dupret, V (2015 a) Characterization of the placoderm (Gnathostomata) assemblage from the tetrapod-bearing locality of Strud (Belgium, upper Famennian). Palaeontology 58, 981–1002.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Olive, S, Clément, G, Daeschler, EB and Dupret, V (2016 b) Placoderm assemblage from the tetrapod-bearing locality of Strud (Belgium, Upper Famennian) provides evidence for a fish nursery. PLoS ONE 11, e0161540. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0161540.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Olive, S, Clément, G, Denayer, J, Derycke, C, Dupret, V, Gerienne, P, Gueriau, P, Marion, JM, Mottequin, B and Prestianni, C (2015 b) Flora and fauna from a new Famennian (Upper Devonian) locality at Becco, eastern Belgium. Geologica Belgica 18, 92–101.Google Scholar
Plax, DP, Lamsdell, JC, Vrazo, MB and Barbikov, DV (2018) A new genus of eurypterid (Chelicerata, Eurypterida) from the Upper Devonian salt deposits of Belarus. Journal of Paleontology 92, 838–49.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ponomarenko, AG (1985) King crabs and eurypterids from the Permian and Mesozoic of the USSR. Paleontological Journal 3, 100–4.Google Scholar
Prestianni, C, Steel, M, Thorez, J and Gerrienne, P (2007) Strud: old quarry, new discoveries. Preliminary report. In Recent Advances in Palynology (eds Steemans, P and Javaux, E), pp. 43–7. Carnets de Géologie, Memoir.Google Scholar
Selden, PA (1981) Functional morphology of the prosoma of Baltoeurypterus tetragonophthalmus (Fischer) (Chelicerata: Eurypterida). Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Earth Sciences 72, 9–48.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Siebold, CT von (1848) Lehrbuch der vergleichenden Anatomie der Wirbellosen Thiere. Erster Theil. In Lehrbuch der verglichenden Anatomie (eds Siebold, CT von and Stannius, H). Berlin: Verlag von Veit & Comp, 679 pp.Google Scholar
Størmer, L (1934) Merostomata from the Downtonian Sandstone of Ringerike, Norway. Skrifter utgitt av Det Norske Vidensakps-Akademi i Oslo I, Matem.-Naturvid. Klasse 10, 1–125.Google Scholar
Størmer, L (1951) A new eurypterid from the Ordovician of Montgomeryshire, Wales. Geological Magazine 88, 409–22.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Størmer, L (1955) Merostomata. In Treatise on Invertebrate Paleontology, Pt. P, Arthropoda 2 (ed. Moore, RC), pp. 3–16. Lawrence, Kansas: Geological Society of America and University of Kansas Press.Google Scholar
Størmer, L and Waterston, CD (1968) IV. Cyrtoctenus gen. nov., a large late Palaeozoic arthropod with pectinate appendages. Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 68, 63–104.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tetlie, OE (2008) Hallipterus excelsior, a stylonurid (Chelicerata: Eurypterida) from the Late Devonian Catskill Delta complex, and its phylogenetic position in the Hardieopteridae. Bulletin of the Peabody Museum of Natural History 49, 19–30.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tetlie, OE, Anderson, LI and Poschmann, M (2007) Kiaeropterus (Eurypterida; Stylonurina) recognized from the Silurian of the Pentland Hills. Scottish Journal of Geology 43, 1–7.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tetlie, OE, Brandt, DS and Briggs, DEG (2008) Ecdysis in sea scorpions (Chelicerata: Eurypterida). Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 265, 182–94.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tetlie, OE and Cuggy, MB (2007) Phylogeny of the basal swimming eurypterids (Chelicerata; Eurypterida; Eurypterina). Journal of Systematic Palaeontology 5, 345–56.Google Scholar
Tetlie, OE and Van Roy, P (2006) A reappraisal of Eurypterus dumonti Stainier, 1917 and its position within the Adelophthalmidae Tollerton, 1989. Bulletin de l’Institut Royal des Sciences Naturelles de Belgique, Sciences de la Terre 76, 79–90.Google Scholar
Tollerton, VP Jr (1989) Morphology, taxonomy, and classification of the order Eurypterida Burmeister, 1843. Journal of Paleontology 63, 642–57.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Waterston, CD (1979) Problems of functional morphology and classification in stylonuroid eurypterids (Chelicerata, Merostomata), with observations on the Scottish Silurian Stylonuroidea. Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Earth Sciences 70, 251–322.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Whyte, MA (2005) A gigantic fossil arthropod trackway. Nature 438, 576.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed