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Redlichiida
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| Redlichiida Temporal range: Cambrian Stage 3 – Middle Cambrian,
| |
|---|---|
| Cambropallas telesto, from Morocco | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Arthropoda |
| Clade: | †Artiopoda |
| Class: | †Trilobita |
| Order: | †Redlichiida Richter, 1932 |
| Suborders | |
This article relies largely or entirely on a single source. (April 2019) |
Redlichiida is an order of trilobites, a group of extinct marine arthropods. Species assigned to the order Redlichiida are among the first trilobites to appear in the fossil record, about halfway during the Lower Cambrian. Due to the difficulty to relate sediments in different areas, there remains some discussion, but among the earliest are Fallotaspis (suborder Olenellina), and Lemdadella (suborder Redlichiina), both belonging to this order. The first representatives of the orders Corynexochida and Ptychopariida also appear very early on and may prove to be even earlier than any redlichiid species. In terms of anatomical comparison, the earliest redlichiid species are probably ancestral to all other trilobite orders and share many primitive characters. The last redlichiid trilobites died out before the end of the Middle Cambrian.
Description
[edit]
Most redlichiids are rather flat (or have low dorso–ventral convexity) and their exoskeleton typically has an oval outline, about 1½× longer than wide. Each back edge of the headshield (or cephalon) very often carries a spine, termed a genal spine. The eye lobes are sickle-shaped, long and extend from the frontal lobe of the central raised area of the cephalon (or glabella) curving outward and increasingly backwards and sometimes eventually inwards again. The visual surface, that contains the calcite lenses is surrounded by fracture lines (or circumocular sutures), so that it has most often broken away from the rest of the cephalon. The glabella tapers forward and is relatively long, with the frontal lobe boss-like or pointy, followed by three rings or pairs of lobes (defined by furrows that may or may not cross over the midline), and finally at the back of the cephalon the so-called occipital ring. On the ventral side of the cephalon, the palate (or hypostome) is attached to the part of the calcified exoskeleton that defines the contour at the ventral side (the so-called doublure), a state called conterminant. The hypostomes of redlichiids have narrow borders, are not split into backward pointing forks, and have only small muscle attachment areas (or maculae). The articulate middle part of the exoskeleton (or thorax) is composed of many of segments that often end in a spine at the side of the animal. To each side of the central axis, the third segment from the front may have an exta large and wide rib (a state called macropleural). The tailshield (or pygidium) is small but appears to be composed of more than one segment. In Olenellina the earliest larval stage (called protaspis) has not been found, so it is presumed it was not calcified. The development of Redlichia from protaspis to adult was gradual without a metamorphosis at any stage.[1]
Two major Lagerstätten where redlichiids are found are the Emu Bay shales of Southern Australia and the Maotianshan shales near Chengjiang in China. Other regions include Morocco, Labrador, Canada, the western United States, and Bohemia, Czech Republic.
The appendages have been preserved in a few specimens. They follow typical trilobite patterns in terms of the number, placement, and types of legs, antennae, gills, etc.
Suborders
[edit]The order Redlichiida is divided into two suborders: Olenellina and Redlichiina. The main difference between the two groups is the lack of facial sutures in the Olenellina. This absence of the facial sutures is regarded as primitive by most scholars. Opisthoparian facial sutures are a shared character of all Redlichiina. In other trilobites, dorsal sutures may be opisthoparian, gonatoparian, proparian or they may be lost secondarily. The absence in the fossil record of the earliest larval stage, the protaspid, suggests that it may have been uncalcified, which would be a second unique character that distinguishes the Olenellina from all other trilobites.[1]
Fossils of olenellinid trilobites are found in North America, and other associated areas that comprised the Cambrian continent of Laurentia. They are very common and are used to define the extent of Laurentia. Their abrupt disappearance marks the boundary between the Lower and the Middle Cambrian.
Fossils of redlichiinid are associated with Cambrian regions other than Laurentia.
References
[edit]- ^ a b Whittington, H.B.; et al. (1997). Introduction, Order Agnostida, Order Redlichiida. Treatise on Invertebrate Paleontology. Vol. Part O.Revised, Volume 1 – Trilobita. Boulder, Colorado/Lawrence, Kansas: Geological Society of America/University of Kansas Press. pp. 400–481. ISBN 0-8137-3108-9.
Redlichiida
View on GrokipediaTaxonomy
History and definition
The order Redlichiida was established by Rudolf Richter and Emma Richter in 1932 to classify a group of primitive trilobites characteristic of the early Cambrian, based on their distinct morphological features that set them apart from other contemporaneous arthropods.[4] This initial proposal grouped together taxa previously scattered across various classifications, emphasizing their shared primitive traits such as a highly segmented thorax and reduced pygidium.[5] The name Redlichiida derives from the genus Redlichia, a prominent early Cambrian trilobite that exemplifies the order's typical form, with the genus itself honoring the German geologist Karl Wilhelm Redlich, who contributed to Himalayan paleontology in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.[6] In the early 20th century, paleontologists debated the taxonomic rank of these trilobites, with some viewing Redlichiida as a subfamily within broader orders like Ptychopariida due to overlapping features, while others advocated for ordinal status to reflect their basal position in trilobite evolution.[7] These debates were largely resolved in the revised Treatise on Invertebrate Paleontology (Part O, Volume 1, 1997), which definitively recognized Redlichiida as a distinct basal order within Trilobita, supported by comprehensive morphological and stratigraphic analyses.[8] At the order level, key diagnostic traits include variations in facial sutures: their absence in one suborder and presence in the other, which underpin the division into Olenellina and Redlichiina.[9]Suborders and families
The order Redlichiida is divided into two suborders: Olenellina and Redlichiina, distinguished primarily by the presence or absence of facial sutures on the cephalon. Both suborders are considered paraphyletic in modern analyses.[10] The suborder Olenellina, considered the more primitive group, lacks facial sutures and is characterized by a semicircular cephalon with a deeply furrowed glabella, numerous thoracic segments often exceeding 15, and a small, micropygous pygidium.[10] This suborder encompasses two superfamilies: Olenelloidea and Fallotaspidoidea, comprising seven families in total—Olenellidae and Holmiidae in Olenelloidea, and Archaeaspididae, Fallotaspididae, Judomiidae, Neltneriidae, and Nevadiidae in Fallotaspidoidea—with approximately 233 described species across these families.[10] Representative genera include Fallotaspis in the Fallotaspididae, one of the earliest known trilobites from the lower Cambrian of Morocco, and Olenellus in the Olenellidae, a common index fossil in Laurentian strata.[10] The Fallotaspidoidea, in particular, represents a paraphyletic assemblage that includes transitional forms bridging Olenellina to more advanced trilobite groups through partial developments in ocular lobe morphology and glabellar outline.[10] In contrast, the suborder Redlichiina possesses opisthoparian facial sutures, allowing for the separation of librigenae during ecdysis, along with a tapering or anteriorly expanding glabella and a high number of thoracic segments, typically 13–21 or more.[10] This suborder includes four superfamilies—Ellipsocephaloidea, Emuelloidea, Paradoxidoidea, and Redlichioidea—encompassing 22 families and over 1,300 described species, reflecting a greater diversity than Olenellina.[10] Key families include the Redlichiidae (40 genera, 309 species) and Ellipsocephalidae (72 genera, 313 species) in Redlichioidea and Ellipsocephaloidea, respectively, as well as the Paradoxididae (13 genera, 95 species) in Paradoxidoidea.[10] Prominent genera are Redlichia from the Redlichiidae, widely distributed in Cambrian Series 2 deposits of Australia and China, and Eoredlichia from the same family, known for its intermediate developmental traits in early ontogeny.[10][1] Some taxa in the Emuelloidea, such as those in the Emuellidae, exhibit extreme thoracic segment counts (up to 97 in the opisthothorax).[10]| Suborder | Superfamilies | Number of Families | Approximate Species Count | Key Genera Examples |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Olenellina | Olenelloidea (2 families); Fallotaspidoidea (5 families) | 7 | ~233 | Fallotaspis, Olenellus |
| Redlichiina | Ellipsocephaloidea (6 families); Emuelloidea (1 family); Paradoxidoidea (3 families); Redlichioidea (12 families) | 22 | >1,300 | Redlichia, Eoredlichia, Paradoxides |