Bassipterus

Bassipterus (meaning "Bass wing") was a prehistoric genus of eurypterid found in deposits of West Virginia and Maryland. It is part of the family Adelophthalmidae and has a single species, B. virgnicus.

Description

Bassipterus has a round, tray-shaped head and the carapace is surrounded by a marginal rim. The swimming legs of this creature are Hughmilleria-type[1] and the genital operculum could mean Bassipterus is closely related to another genus called Pittsfordipterus.[2]

History

Bassipterus was described by paleontologists Erik Norman Kjellesvig-Waering and Kenneth Edward Caster. Since Bassipterus translates to "wing of Bass", most fossils of this genus were found in Bass, West Virginia and a carapace was also discovered in Cumberland, Maryland.[3]

  • Bassipterus metastoma
  • Bassipterus operculum

References

  1. ↑ Tollerton,, V. P. (1989). "Morphology, taxonomy, and classification of the order Eurypterida Burmeister, 1843". Journal of Paleontology.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: extra punctuation (link)
  2. ↑ "Phylogeny and palaeoecology of the Adelophthalmoidea (Arthropoda; Chelicerata; Eurypterida)". Journal of Systematic Palaeontology.
  3. ↑ "Eurypterids from the Silurian of West Virginia". Journal of Paleontology.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.