Description

Upper Pennsylvanian
Wood Siding Formation – Pony Creek Shale Member
Maple Hill, Wabaunsee County, KS, USA
Unusual 30mm horseshoe crab in 30mm concretion from Kansas. First we have ever seen.

Arthropod. Crustacean, Limuline.

Paleolimulus is an extinct genus of horseshoe crab known from the Late Carboniferous to Permian of North America and Russia.

Based on taphonomic experiments on the modern species, Limulus polyphemus, ancient horseshoe crabs and other arthropods with non-mineralized exoskeletons are inferred to have become pliable soon after molting or dying, disarticulating slowly prior to burial. Extreme compression, wrinkling, and loose folding of sclerites are attributed to burial of a pliable exoskeleton. Slow pre-burial disarticulation partly accounts for the exceptional preservation of Paleolimulus remains.

Interesting specimen from a site we haven’t had a sample from before.