Paleobiology and taphonomy of exceptionally preserved organisms from the Waukesha Biota (Silurian), Wisconsin, USA

Wendruff, Andrew J.; Babcock, Loren E.; Kluessendorf, Joanne; Mikulic, Donald G.

doi:10.1016/j.palaeo.2020.109631

Cited by 14 publications

(47 citation statements)

References 69 publications

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“…1), has been preserved, and provides insight into a group that terrestrialised early in its evolutionary history. The Waukesha Biota is diverse 17,18,20,21 , and includes biomineralised and non-biomineralising or lightly skeletonised taxa, of which macrofossils are assigned to at least 12 metazoan phyla. Articulated trilobites, ostracodes, conulariids, graptolites, non-biomineralised arthropods and 'worms' dominate the biota.…”

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confidence: 99%

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A Silurian ancestral scorpion with fossilised internal anatomy illustrating a pathway to arachnid terrestrialisation

Wendruff

Babcock

Wirkner

et al. 2020

Sci Rep

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Scorpions are among the first animals to have become fully terrestrialised. Their early fossil record is limited, and fundamental questions, including how and when they adapted to life on land, have been difficult to answer. Here we describe a new exceptionally preserved fossil scorpion from the Waukesha Biota (early Silurian, ca. 437.5-436.5 Ma) of Wisconsin, USA. This is the earliest scorpion yet reported, and it shows a combination of primitive marine chelicerate and derived arachnid characteristics. Elements of the circulatory, respiratory, and digestive systems are preserved, and they are essentially indistinguishable from those of present-day scorpions but share similarities with marine relatives. At this early point in arachnid evolution, physiological changes concomitant with the marine-to-terrestrial transition must have occurred but, remarkably, structural change in the circulatory or respiratory systems appear negligible. Whereas there is no unambiguous evidence that this early scorpion was terrestrial, this evidence suggests that ancestral scorpions were likely capable of forays onto land, a behavior similar to that of extant horseshoe crabs.

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confidence: 99%

“…Organisms were preserved through replication in microbial mats which coated and cemented bodily remains in place. Microbial processes are implicated in the precipitation of thin phosphatic coatings on non-biomineralised or lightly skeletonised remains leading to exceptional preservation 20,21,24 . Diagnosis.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

A Silurian ancestral scorpion with fossilised internal anatomy illustrating a pathway to arachnid terrestrialisation

Wendruff

Babcock

Wirkner

et al. 2020

Sci Rep

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“…All but one specimen reported here is preserved in flinz. Specimens from flinz layers are preserved by a coating of authigenic phosphate overlying a thin dark organic film and are generally more detailed [24][25]. UWGM 2345 is in a fäule layer and is preserved by a thin coating of organic film.…”

Section: Geological Settingmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…It is made available under a The copyright holder for this preprint (which was this version posted September 7, 2018. . https://doi.org/10.1101/407379 doi: bioRxiv preprint small sedimentary traps along a tidally influenced shoreline [24][25]. Organisms were neither consumed nor readily decayed, thus increasing their chances of preservation.…”

Section: Sedimentary and Microbial Structures In The Brandon Bridge Fmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Limited bioturbation indicates that this environment was devoid of most burrowers and grazers that allowed a diverse microbial biota, including microbial mats, to develop and flourish. Microbialmediated processes, such as authigenic mineralization, facilitated the preservation of much of the Waukesha Biota [24][25] including non-biomineralized and lightly skeletonized organisms (compare [27][28][29][30][31][32] [20], range from the Early Ordovician (Tremadoc) to the Early Devonian (Emsian). Prior to this paper, six monospecific genera were described and referred to the group: Triopus drabowiensis [35] (Ordovician of the Czech Republic), Duslia insignis [36] (Ordovician of the Czech Republic and Morocco), Cheloniellon calmani [34] (Devonian of Germany), Neostrabops martini [37] (Ordovician of the USA),…”

Section: Sedimentary and Microbial Structures In The Brandon Bridge Fmentioning

confidence: 99%

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New cheloniellid arthropod with large raptorial appendages from the Silurian of Wisconsin, USA

Wendruff

Babcock

Mikulic

et al. 2018

Preprint

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Cheloniellids comprise a small, distinctive group of Paleozoic arthropods of whose phylogenetic relationships within the Arthropoda remain unresolved. A new form, Xus yus, n. gen, n. sp. is reported from the Waukesha Lagerstatte in the Brandon Bridge Formation (Silurian: Telychian), near Waukesha, Wisconsin, USA. Exceptionally preserved specimens show previously poorly known features including biramous appendages; this is the first cheloniellid to show large, anterior raptorial appendages. We emend the diagnosis of Cheloniellida; cephalic appendages are uniramous and may include raptorial appendages; trunk appendages are biramous.

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Panderodus from the Waukesha Lagerstätte of Wisconsin, USA: a primitive macrophagous vertebrate predator

Murdock

Smith

2021

Papers in Palaeontology

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Conodonts are an extinct group of early vertebrates. Articulated fossils of their feeding apparatus ('natural assemblages') are rare, and preserved soft tissues vanishingly so. Here, a primitive conodont with preserved soft tissues is redescribed from the Waukesha Lagerst€ atte of Wisconsin, USA. Although the feeding apparatus of derived prioniodontid conodonts is well understood, together with the homologies between taxa, the same is not true of more primitive conodonts that have apparatuses composed entirely of coniform elements. The new data provide insights into the longterm problem of determining homology across different types of conodont feeding apparatus. The Waukesha Panderodus preserves an almost complete apparatus, consisting of two parallel rows of elements that occluded across the sagittal plane. A pair of M elements lies at the rostral end of the apparatus, with four pairs of S elements located immedi-ately caudal to them. Three pairs of P elements are identified at the caudal end of the apparatus, for the first time in a primitive conodont with coniform elements. A symmetrical S 0 element is located on the midline between the M-S and P suites and provides the key for establishing homology with more derived ramiform-pectiniform apparatuses. The exceptional preservation reveals cartilaginous supports for the elements that inserted into their basal cavities. The trunk of the animal is poorly preserved but was dorsoventrally flattened in life with transverse myomeres containing muscle fibrils. Overall, the specimen shows that Panderodus was a macrophagous feeder and provides an insight into the functional anatomy of early vertebrate predation.

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Paleobiology and taphonomy of exceptionally preserved organisms from the Waukesha Biota (Silurian), Wisconsin, USA

Cited by 14 publications

References 69 publications

A Silurian ancestral scorpion with fossilised internal anatomy illustrating a pathway to arachnid terrestrialisation

A Silurian ancestral scorpion with fossilised internal anatomy illustrating a pathway to arachnid terrestrialisation

New cheloniellid arthropod with large raptorial appendages from the Silurian of Wisconsin, USA

Panderodus from the Waukesha Lagerstätte of Wisconsin, USA: a primitive macrophagous vertebrate predator

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