The Arthropod Assemblage of the Upper Devonian Strud locality and its Ecology

The Devonian (419-359 million years ago) is the geological period when the terrestrial biota fully established. Early representatives from a terrestrial and continental aquatic biota have previously been reported from the Upper Devonian (Famennian) Strud quarry in Belgium, in the shape of seed-bearing plants and vertebrates (fish and early tetrapods). The palaeoenvironment is interpreted as a floodplain with slow accumulation of sediment in the river channels and adjacent shallow pools, subject to seasonal flooding and desiccation. This thesis presents the upper Famennian Strud ecosystem with representatives from the largest animal phylum – the Arthropoda. Pancrustaceans are dominating the arthropod assemblage by two eumalacostracans (previously described), three groups of branchiopods, and a putative insect, all collected in fine shales likely deposited in the shallow pools. The branchiopods from Strud comprise new members from all three extant clades, i.e. notostracans, anostracans, and spinicaudatan diplostracans. The notostracan Strudops goldenbergi is remarkable for its close resemblance with the extant genus Triops by the overall body plan and telson morphology. A phylogenetic analysis including modern and extinct notostracans and anostracans was performed, where Strudops appears as the earliest undisputed notostracan ever found. In addition, new genera of Anostraca (Haltinnaias serrata) and Spinicaudata (Gesvestheria pernegrei) are described herein. The insect Strudiella devonica consists of a single specimen and is interpreted to have been a nymph due to its minute size and wingless appearance. The chelicerates are represented by one or several species of eurypterids. So far unnamed juvenile eurypterid remains have also been found within the pool strata, and fragments of adult individuals in the coarser river deposits. The branchiopod community displays a unique insight to the ecosystem that these crustaceans inhabited. This is partly because of their co-occurrence, but mainly because they are preserved in close association to draught-resistant encysted eggs, in the same manner as modern day branchiopods do to survive and disperse during periods of drought and freezing. Altogether, the arthropod assemblage offers insight to Late Devonian freshwater ecosystems, and provides further understanding of the evolution of respective groups

The Arthropod Assemblage of the Upper Devonian Strud locality and its Ecology

The Devonian (419-359 million years ago) is the geological period when the terrestrial biota fully established. Early representatives from a terrestrial and continental aquatic biota have previously been reported from the Upper Devonian (Famennian) Strud quarry in Belgium, in the shape of seed-bearing plants and vertebrates (fish and early tetrapods). The palaeoenvironment is interpreted as a floodplain with slow accumulation of sediment in the river channels and adjacent shallow pools, subject to seasonal flooding and desiccation. This thesis presents the upper Famennian Strud ecosystem with representatives from the largest animal phylum – the Arthropoda. Pancrustaceans are dominating the arthropod assemblage by two eumalacostracans (previously described), three groups of branchiopods, and a putative insect, all collected in fine shales likely deposited in the shallow pools. The branchiopods from Strud comprise new members from all three extant clades, i.e. notostracans, anostracans, and spinicaudatan diplostracans. The notostracan Strudops goldenbergi is remarkable for its close resemblance with the extant genus Triops by the overall body plan and telson morphology. A phylogenetic analysis including modern and extinct notostracans and anostracans was performed, where Strudops appears as the earliest undisputed notostracan ever found. In addition, new genera of Anostraca (Haltinnaias serrata) and Spinicaudata (Gesvestheria pernegrei) are described herein. The insect Strudiella devonica consists of a single specimen and is interpreted to have been a nymph due to its minute size and wingless appearance. The chelicerates are represented by one or several species of eurypterids. So far unnamed juvenile eurypterid remains have also been found within the pool strata, and fragments of adult individuals in the coarser river deposits. The branchiopod community displays a unique insight to the ecosystem that these crustaceans inhabited. This is partly because of their co-occurrence, but mainly because they are preserved in close association to draught-resistant encysted eggs, in the same manner as modern day branchiopods do to survive and disperse during periods of drought and freezing. Altogether, the arthropod assemblage offers insight to Late Devonian freshwater ecosystems, and provides further understanding of the evolution of respective groups

The Arthropod Assemblage of the Upper Devonian Strud locality and its Ecology

The Devonian (419-359 million years ago) is the geological period when the terrestrial biota fully established. Early representatives from a terrestrial and continental aquatic biota have previously been reported from the Upper Devonian (Famennian) Strud quarry in Belgium, in the shape of seed-bearing plants and vertebrates (fish and early tetrapods). The palaeoenvironment is interpreted as a floodplain with slow accumulation of sediment in the river channels and adjacent shallow pools, subject to seasonal flooding and desiccation. This thesis presents the upper Famennian Strud ecosystem with representatives from the largest animal phylum – the Arthropoda. Pancrustaceans are dominating the arthropod assemblage by two eumalacostracans (previously described), three groups of branchiopods, and a putative insect, all collected in fine shales likely deposited in the shallow pools. The branchiopods from Strud comprise new members from all three extant clades, i.e. notostracans, anostracans, and spinicaudatan diplostracans. The notostracan Strudops goldenbergi is remarkable for its close resemblance with the extant genus Triops by the overall body plan and telson morphology. A phylogenetic analysis including modern and extinct notostracans and anostracans was performed, where Strudops appears as the earliest undisputed notostracan ever found. In addition, new genera of Anostraca (Haltinnaias serrata) and Spinicaudata (Gesvestheria pernegrei) are described herein. The insect Strudiella devonica consists of a single specimen and is interpreted to have been a nymph due to its minute size and wingless appearance. The chelicerates are represented by one or several species of eurypterids. So far unnamed juvenile eurypterid remains have also been found within the pool strata, and fragments of adult individuals in the coarser river deposits. The branchiopod community displays a unique insight to the ecosystem that these crustaceans inhabited. This is partly because of their co-occurrence, but mainly because they are preserved in close association to draught-resistant encysted eggs, in the same manner as modern day branchiopods do to survive and disperse during periods of drought and freezing. Altogether, the arthropod assemblage offers insight to Late Devonian freshwater ecosystems, and provides further understanding of the evolution of respective groups

Stylonurine eurypterids from the Strud locality (Upper Devonian, Belgium): new insights into the ecology of freshwater sea scorpions

International audienceThe Upper Famennian (Upper Devonian) Strud locality has yielded very abundant and diversified flora as well as vertebrate and arthropod faunas. The arthropod fauna, mostly recovered from fine shales deposited in a calm, confined floodplain habitat including temporary pools, has delivered a putative insect and various crustaceans including eumalacostracans and notostracan, spinicaudatan and anostracan branchiopods. Here we present the Strud eurypterids, consisting of semi-articulated juvenile specimens assigned to Hardieopteridae recovered from the pool and floodplain deposits, as well as larger isolated fragments of potential adults recovered from stratigraphically lower, coarser dark sandy layers indicative of a higher-energy fluvial environment. The Strud fossils strongly suggest that, as proposed for some Carboniferous eurypterids, juvenile freshwater eurypterids inhabited sheltered nursery pools and migrated to higher-energy river systems as they matured

Assessment on the Late Devonian fauna of Strud, Belgium

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Strudops_char.list

List of characters and character states used for the phylogenetic analysis

Optimal trees

Trees from the phylogenetic analysis

Character matrix

Character matrix in TNT format