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A well-preserved respiratory system in a Silurian ostracod.

ABSTRACT: Ostracod crustaceans are diverse and ubiquitous in aqueous environments today but relatively few known species have gills. Ostracods are the most abundant fossil arthropods but examples of soft-part preservation, especially of gills, are exceptionally rare. A new ostracod, Spiricopia aurita (Myodocopa), from the marine Silurian Herefordshire Lagerstätte (430 Mya), UK, preserves appendages, lateral eyes and gills. The respiratory system includes five pairs of gill lamellae with hypobranchial and epibranchial canals that conveyed haemolymph. A heart and associated vessels had likely evolved in ostracods by the Mid-Silurian.

SUBMITTER: Siveter DJ

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6283931 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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A well-preserved respiratory system in a Silurian ostracod.

Siveter David J DJ Briggs Derek E G DEG Siveter Derek J DJ Sutton Mark D MD

Biology letters 20181107 11

Ostracod crustaceans are diverse and ubiquitous in aqueous environments today but relatively few known species have gills. Ostracods are the most abundant fossil arthropods but examples of soft-part preservation, especially of gills, are exceptionally rare. A new ostracod, <i>Spiricopia aurita</i> (Myodocopa), from the marine Silurian Herefordshire Lagerstätte (430 Mya), UK, preserves appendages, lateral eyes and gills. The respiratory system includes five pairs of gill lamellae with hypobranchi ...[more]

PMID: 30404865

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