Description
Early Ordovician (Arenigian)
Upper Fezouata Formation
Zagora, Draa Valley, Morocco
48mm on 145mm slab. Extremely high quality prep.
This is perhaps the earliest known occurrence of synziphosurines which are better known from the Early Silurian to Early Carboniferous. Still awaiting formal description in the scientific literature..
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.
Video is a 3D scan of a related Silurian specimen
