Palaeoisopus problematicus

Palaeoisopus problematicus
	' Palaeoisopus problematicus'
Temporal occurrence
	Lower Devonian , Emsium
	407 to 397.5 million years
Locations
	Hunsrück Slate (Rhenish Slate Mountains);
Systematics
Sub-stem :	Jawbearers (Chelicerata)
Class :	Woodlouse spiders (Pycnogonida)
Order :	Palaeopantopoda
Family :	Palaeoisopodidae
Genre :	Palaeoisopus
	Palaeoisopus problematicus
Scientific name
	Palaeoisopus problematicus
	Broili , 1928

Palaeoisopus problematicus is an extinct woodlice spider , which has been identified with a few dozen specimens in the Bundenbacher Hunsrück slate. It was one of the largest predators of this fauna with a length of up to 25 cm and a maximum diameter of approx. 40 cm with splayed legs.

The first evidence was based on fossil remains in 1923 by Ferdinand Broili , who first described the species in 1932. Broili wrongly interpreted the elongated tail as a trunk and the chelicerae as a paddle-like abdomen , so he switched the entire body orientation. It was not until 1959 that this error was cleared up by Walter Maximilian Lehmann , since, among other things, new finds could now be examined.

After a new examination by Jan Bergström , Wilhelm Stürmer and Gerhard Winter in 1980 with the inclusion of X-ray images (the organic substances were converted into pyrite in the Hunsrück slate ), the image of a good swimmer emerged who was also able to walk and who was probably largely off the nourished sea lilies that often occur in the context of the find.

There is also a fossil trace on which a specimen of the type passed from walking to swimming.

literature

Christoph Bartels, Günther Brassel: Fossils in the Hunsrück schist: Documents of marine life in Devon , 1st edition, Museum Idar-Oberstein, Vol. 7, 1990, pp. 96-100, ISSN 0721-5495 .

Individual evidence

^ Walter Maximilian Lehmann: New discoveries at Palaeoisopus . Palaeontological Journal 33 (1959): 1/2, 96-108. doi : 10.1007 / BF02988981
^ Jan Bergström, Wilhelm Stürmer, Gerhard Winter: Palaeoisopus, Palaeopantopus andPalaeothea, pycnogonid arthropods from the Lower Devonian Hunsrück Slate, West Germany . Palaeontological Journal 54 (1980): 11, 7-54. doi : 10.1007 / BF02985882

[1] Walter Maximilian Lehmann: New discoveries at Palaeoisopus . Palaeontological Journal 33 (1959): 1/2, 96-108. doi : 10.1007 / BF02988981

[2] Jan Bergström, Wilhelm Stürmer, Gerhard Winter: Palaeoisopus, Palaeopantopus andPalaeothea, pycnogonid arthropods from the Lower Devonian Hunsrück Slate, West Germany . Palaeontological Journal 54 (1980): 11, 7-54. doi : 10.1007 / BF02985882