Trilobites
Order Redlichiida, Suborder Redlichiina, Superfamily
Redlichioidea, Family Redlichiidae
Geologic Age: Early Cambrian
Trilobite is 20 mm long
Chengjiang Maotianshan Shales - Quiongzhusi Section, Yu’anshan
Member, Heilinpu Formation, Haiyi Village, Anning, Yunnan Province,
China
Remarks: Fortey (2000)
labels the members of genus Fallotaspis (Subfamily Fallotaspidinae,
Family Fallotaspididaea)
the oldest trilobites in the fossil record. Scientists
believe it would be the progenitor of Eoredlichia and all of the members
of Family
Redlichiidae. As such, members
of Superfamily Redlichioidea would be the
oldest non-Olenelloid trilobite sister-group
encompassing all of the higher, non-Olenelloid trilobites. Eoredlichia
is thought to have lived a benthic lifestyle near the seafloor, and
based on its spinose legs and braced hypostome,
may have been a predator.
Coming from the Chengjiang Maotianshan Shales, this trilobite is
some five to ten million years older than trilobites from the Burgess
Shale.
Also see: Chinese
Trilobites Trilobite Phylogeny sensu Fortey |
