Scutellum, PUSCH, 1833

Budil, Petr & Mergl, Michal, 2019, Trilobite Assemblage Of Calceola - Bearing Beds In Acanthopyge Limestone (Choteč Formation, Middle Devonian, Eifelian, Prague Basin, The Czech Republic), Fossil Imprint 75 (1), pp. 79-91 : 83

Scutellum ? sp.

Text-fig. 4e–g

M a t e r i a l. 2 fragments of pygidia, internal moulds and their counterparts.

R e m a r k s. Among trilobite remains from the locality, apart from ubiquitous phacopids and very fragmentary but common harpetids, remains of scutelluid trilobites are distinctive. They do not enable determination at the species level, and barely at the generic level.Despite this, it is apparent that they do not represent remains of Thysanopeltis HAWLE et CORDA, 1847, or Scabriscutellum RICHTER et RICHTER, 1956 (the only scutelluid genera mentioned in Acanthopyge Limestone by Chlupáč 1983; see also discussion below). Pygidial fragments are characterised by wide, only moderately vaulted paired ribs, middle rib possessing coarse granulation (large granules, pustules), and very narrow inter-rib furrows. The axis is not preserved, with the exception of a narrow fragment figured in Text-fig. 4e; also, the pygidial outline is barely determinable, possibly semielliptical. Because of insufficient preservation, affiliation of all these samples to the Scutellum sensu lato seems to be the most parsimonious solution. Occurrence of Scutellum PUSCH, 1833 and allied taxa (for example, Torleyiscutellum BASSE, KOCH et LEMKE, 2016 , Goldius DE KONINCK, 1841 ; see also Weiner et al. 2018) is characteristic for the Middle and Upper Devonian of Laurussia (current France, Germany, Belgium or Poland), see, for example, Archinal (1994), Van Viersen and Prescher (2011) and Basse et al. (2016).

Figures

Text-fig. 2. General geological map of the Emsian (Suchomasty Limestone) and Eifelian (Acanthopyge Limestone) rocks at Zadní Kobyla ridge with marked Calceola- and trilobite-bearing locality. Modified after Svoboda and Prantl (1949) and Mergl (2014).