Pauline avibella

Pauline avibella
Temporal range: Wenlock
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Subphylum: Crustacea
Class: Ostracoda
Order: Myodocopida
Family: Cylindroleberididae
Genus: Pauline
Species: P. avibella
Siveter et al., 2013
Binomial name
Pauline avibella
Siveter et al., 2013

Pauline avibella is a fossil ostracod from the Silurian with unusually well preserved soft parts, including limbs, eyes, gills and alimentary system.[1]

The tiny shelled arthropod was found in 425-million-year-old rocks in the Herefordshire Lagerstätte in England near the Welsh Border. The rocks at the site date to the Silurian period of geological time. At the time, southern Britain was a sea area on a small continent situated in warm, southerly subtropical latitudes. The marine animals living there were covered by a fall of volcanic ash that preserved them frozen in time.[2]

References

  1. David J. Siveter, Derek E. G. Briggs, Mark D. Sutton & Sarah C. Joomun (2013). "A Silurian myodocope with preserved soft-parts: cautioning the interpretation of the shell-based ostracod record". Proceedings of the Royal Society B 280 (1752). doi:10.1098/rspb.2012.2664.
  2. Pauline avibella: tiny new species discovered

External links