Schinderhannes (genus)

Schinderhannes bartelsi

• Europe ( Germany ( Hunsrückschiefer ), Rhineland -Palatinate )

• Schinderhannes bartelsi cooling, Briggs & Rust, 2009

Schinderhannes bartelsi is a distant relative of the Anomalocarididae ( Anomalocarida or more correctly Anomalocaridida ), which has so far delivered only by a single find from the Lower Devonian ( about 400 million years ago ) of the Hunsrück slate. His discovery was unexpected because earlier similar fossils only from Cambrian fossil deposits were known, which are about 100 million years older than the Hunsrückschiefer.

Anomalocariden are organisms such as Anomalocaris, which are thought to be distantly related to arthropods ( arthropods ). However, they differ significantly from all known fossil and recent organisms - they had lateral praise for swimming and large compound eyes. The most striking feature is a pair of claw-like " large attachments " which are believed to have the food delivered to the mouth. These grippers are segmented and have a high degree of mobility on.

Discovery

The only known fossil specimen was found in Eschenbach Bockberg quarry in Bundenbach and is named after the robber " Schinderhannes " who once made ​​this area unsafe. The Namensepithet bartelsi honors Christoph Bartels, an expert on fossils from the Hunsrück Slate. The specimen is now in the Natural History Museum in Mainz.

Morphology

Schinderhannes is about 10 cm long and wears a pair of " large attachments " ( engl. 'great appendages ' ), very similar to those of Hurdia [A 1], a radial Peytoia -like " Pineapple -Ring" as a mouth [A 2] and large stalked eyes. Its body is divided into 12 segments, large fin-like structures for swimming stick out of a segment directly behind the head.

Ecology

His gut is obtained in a way that one typically finds it at predators, and this way of life is supported by the robber -like nature of the prickly " great appendage " and the size of the eyes. The organism was able to swim with safety by traveling at the " fins" on his head and headed to the wing-like lobes at the head. These lobes are believed to have originated from the lateral lobes of the Anomalocariden the Cambrian; Ancestors who used the flaps on its sides for swimming, and had not yet the specialization of Schinderhannes.

Importance

The organism may allow up to a certain degree in the early classification arthropods. He would then counted basal to the real arthropods and would this group closer than Anomalocaris. Schinderhannes could thus be understood as a kind of "uncle" of arthropods, Anomalocaris, however, as a " great- aunt ". This leads to the conclusion that the Anomalocariden form a paraphyletic group - mean that the arthropods are descended from the Anomalocariden. In particular, the Anomalocariden would be extinct without descendants, as had been adopted Stephen Jay Gould, which would have significant consequences for the " habit " of the family tree of living things. It also seems that the two-part appendages (sensors, mouthparts and legs, English: ' biramous limbs ') incurred by the arthropods by fusion of the lateral lobes with the gills of Anomalocariden. The existence of the fossil has more impact - it turns out that the group of early arthropods with short " great appendages " is not a natural grouping.

The discovery of this fossil is of utmost importance through pollution of strong expansion of the geological life of the Anomalocariden: The group was previously known to middle Cambrian period, ie from a time 100 million years ago Schinderhannes only from deposits of the lower. This fact underlines the importance of the deposits from Hunsrückschiefer because of the exceptionally well-preserved fossils of the formation time, you might not find elsewhere so.