Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-lj6df Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-05T23:26:55.939Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Lower Carboniferous shrimp Tealliocaris from Gullane, East Lothian, Scotland

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 November 2011

D. E. G. Briggs  and
E. N. K. Clarkson
D. E. G. Briggs
Affiliation:
Department of Earth Sciences, Goldsmith's College, University of London, Rachel McMillan Building, Creek Road, London SE8 3BU, England.
E. N. K. Clarkson
Affiliation:
Grant Institute of Geology, University of Edinburgh, West Mains Road, Edinburgh EH9 3JW, Scotland.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Tealliocaris is probably one of the best preserved of all Carboniferous crustaceans. It occurs scattered through the 12 cm thick laminated Gullane ‘shrimp-bed’. The cuticle is exceptionally well preserved and the specimens, which are normally complete, are infilled with fluorapatite. The carapace has an elongate rostrum, a defined frontal area, a median ridge and paired gastric and inner and outer lateral ridges. The eyes are borne on a stout peduncle. The first antenna bears a pair of flagella, the second an antennal scale and long flagellum. The mandible is large and heavily sclerotised with molar and incisor process. The maxillae and anterior thoracopods are poorly preserved. The posterior six thoracopods each have a long segmented endopod and annulated setose exopod. More than half the specimens preserve lamellae which may represent branchial epipods, or floor a brood chamber beneath the carapace on either side of the thorax. The pleopods are biramous. The telson and uropods form a tail fan. In the absence of oostegites Tealliocaris cannot be assigned to the order Mysidacea but its affinities lie close to these Eumalacostraca. Tealliocaris walked on the thoracic endopods, but could also swim using the pleopods and thoracic exopods. The mode of feeding is uncertain. Tealliocaris probably inhabited a brackish lake or lagoon, but its distribution elsewhere suggests that it may have been tolerant of a range of salinities.

Keywords

CarboniferousecologyMalacostracamorphologysystematics.
Type
Evidence for life habits from exceptionally preserved faunas
Information
Earth and Environmental Science Transactions of The Royal Society of Edinburgh , Volume 76 , Issue 2-3: Fossil Anthropods as Living Animals , 1985 , pp. 173 - 201
Copyright
Copyright © Royal Society of Edinburgh 1985

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Briggs, D. E. G. & Clarkson, E. N. K. 1983. The Lower Carboniferous Granton ‘shrimp-bed’, Edinburgh. In Briggs, D. E. G. and Lane, P. D. (eds) Trilobites and other early arthropods: papers in honour of Professor H. B. Whittington F.R.S. SPEC PAP PALAEONTOL. 30, 616–177.Google Scholar
Briggs, D. E. G. & Clarkson, E. N. K. 1985. Malacostracan Crustacea from the Dinantian of Foulden, Berwickshire, Scotland. TRANS R SOC EDINBURGH, EARTH SCI 76, 35–40.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Briggs, D. E. G., Clarkson, E. N. K. & Aldridge, R. J. 1983. The conodont animal. LETHAIA 16, 1–14.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brooks, H. K. 1962. The Palaeozoic Eumalacostraca of North America. BULL AM PALEONTOL. 44 (202), 163–338.Google Scholar
Brooks, H. K. 1969. Eocarida. In Moore, R. C. (ed.) Treatise on Invertebrate Paleontology, R, 332–345. Kansas: Geol. Soc. Am. and Univ. Kansas Press.Google Scholar
Burnett, B. R. & Hessler, R. R. 1972. Thoracic epipodites in the Stomatopoda (Crustacea): a phylogenetic consideration. J ZOOL SOC LONDON 169, 381–92.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Clough, C. T., Barren, G., Crampton, C. B., Maufe, H. B., Bailey, E. B. & Anderson, E. M. 1910. The Geology of East Lothian. MEM GEOL SURV U K.Google Scholar
Dahl, E. 1983. Malacostracan phylogeny and evolution. In Schram, F. R. (ed.) Crustacean phylogeny. Crustacean Issues 1, 189–212. Rotterdam: A. A. Balkema.Google Scholar
Dewey, C. P. & Fahraeus, L. 1982. Peracarids (Crustacea) from Mississippian strata of western Newfoundland. CAN J EARTH SCI 19, 666–70.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Etheridge, R. 1877. On the occurrence of a Macrurous Decapod (Anthrapalaemon woodwardi sp. nov.) in the Red Sandstone, or lowest group of the Carboniferous Formation in the South East of Scotland. Q J GEOL SOC LONDON 31, 863–78.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McLaughlin, P. A. 1980. Comparative morphology of Recent Crustacea. San Francisco: Freeman.Google Scholar
Manton, S. M. 1977. The Arthropoda: Habits, Functional Morphology, and Evolution. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Greensmith, T. 1962. Rhythmic deposition in the Carboniferous Oil-Shale Group of Scotland. J GEOL 70, 355–64.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Grindly, J. R. & Hessler, R. R. 1971. The respiratory mechanism of Spelaeogriphus and its phylogenetic significance (Spelaeogriphacea) CRUSTACEANA 20, 141–4.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hesselbo, S. P. & Trewin, N. H. 1984. Deposition. Diagenesis and Structures of the Cheese Bay Shrimp Bed, Lower Carboniferous, East Lothian. SCOTT J GEOL (in press).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hessler, R. R. 1969. Euphausiacea. In Moore, R. C. (ed.) Treatise on Invertebrate Palaeontology, R, 394–8. Kansas: Geol. Soc. Am. and Univ. Kansas Press.Google Scholar
Hessler, R. R. 1982a. Evolution of arthropod locomotion: a crustacean model. In IIHerreid, C. F. and Fourtner, C. E. (eds) Locomotion and energetics in arthropods, 9–30New York: Plenum.Google Scholar
Hessler, R. R. 1982b. The structural morphology of walking mechanisms in eumalacostracan crustaceans. PHIL TRANS R SOC LONDON B 296, 245–98.Google Scholar
Hessler, R. R. 1983. A defense of the caridoid facies: wherein the early evolution of the Eumalacostraca is discussed. In Schram, F. R. (ed.) Crustacean Phylogeny. Crustacean Issues 1, 145–64. Rotterdam: A. A. Balkema.Google Scholar
Peach, B. N. 1908. Monograph of the Higher Crustacea of the Carboniferous rocks of Scotland. MEM GEOL SURV G B PALAEONTOL.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schram, F. R. 1974. Mazon Creek caridoid Crustacea. FIELDIANA GEOL 30 9–65.Google Scholar
Schram, F. R. 1979. British Carboniferous Malacostraca. FIELDIANA GEOL 40, 1–129.Google Scholar
Schram, F. R. 1981. On the classification of Eumalacostraca. J CRUSTACEAN BIOL 1, 1–10.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Traquair, R. 1907. Report on Fossil Fishes collected by the Geological Survey of Scotland from Shales exposed on the shore near Gullane, East Lothian. TRANS R SOC EDINBURGH 46, 103–17.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Watling, L. 1983. Peracaridan disunity and its bearing on eumalacostracan phylogeny, with a redefinition of eumalacostracan superorders. In Schram, F. R. (ed.) Crustacean phylogeny. Crustacean Issues 1, 213–228. Rotterdam: A. A. Balkema.Google Scholar
Briggs, D. E. G. & Clarkson, E. N. K. 1985. Malacostracan Crustacea from the Dinantian of Foulden, Berwickshire, Scotland. TRANS R SOC EDINBURGH, EARTH SCI 76, 35–40.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
White, E. I. 1927. The fish-fauna of the Cementstones of Foulden, Berwickshire. TRANS R SOC EDINBURGH 55, 257–87.Google Scholar