Ainiktozoon

Ainiktozoon loganense
Temporal range: Ludlow
↓
Calymene blumenbachi & Ainiktozoon loganese
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Subphylum: Crustacea
Class: Thylacocephala
Order: Concavicarida
Genus: Ainiktozoon
Scourfield, 1937
Species: A. loganense
Binomial name
Ainiktozoon loganense
Scourfield, 1937

Ainiktozoon is an enigmatic fossil genus from the Silurian of Scotland.[1] Originally described as an early chordate,[2] recent studies suggest that it was in fact an arthropod, more precisely a crustacean belonging to the little known extinct class Thylacocephala.[3]

The only discovered species, Ainiktozoon loganense, is known from a number of specimens from Silurian rocks (Ludlow series) at Lesmahagow in Scotland.[3] Ainiktozoon is Greek for "enigmatic animal", from αἰνικτός (aíniktós, "riddling, enigmatical").[2]

References

  1. ^ A. Ritchie (1985). "Ainiktozoon loganense Scourfield, a protochordate? from the Silurian of Scotland". Alcheringa 9 (2): 117–142. doi:10.1080/03115518508618961. 
  2. ^ a b D. J. Scourfield (1937). "An anomalous fossil organism, possibly a new type of chordate, from the Upper Silurian of Lesmahagow, Lanarkshire – Ainiktozoon loganense, gen. et sp. nov". Proceedings of the Royal Society B 121 (825): 533–547. doi:10.1098/rspb.1937.0001. 
  3. ^ a b Wim van der Brugghen, Frederick R. Schram & David M. Martill (1997). "The fossil Ainiktozoon is an arthropod" (PDF). Nature 385 (6617): 589–590. doi:10.1038/385589a0. http://dare.uva.nl/document/32632. 

External links