Description

Early Ordovician (Arenigian)
Upper Fezouata Formation
Zagora, Draa Valley, Morocco

6mm positive on 85mm x 20mm slab.

Arthropod. Soft-bodied. Lagerstatten.

This is the first known occurrence in Africa and the earliest known occurrence of synziphosurines anywhere. They are better known from the Early Silurian to Early Carboniferous of North America and Europe.

Nice contrast between the fossil and the matrix. Killer specimen.

A synziphosurine is a member of a suborder of arthropods, Synziphosurina, considered to be stem-group xiphosurans. In other words, based on current understanding, they may not be ancestral to xiphosurans (horseshoe crabs) but they are more closely related to their ancestors than to other groups.