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The presumed Synziphosuran Bunodella horrida Matthew, 1889 (Silurian; Cunningham Creek Formation, New Brunswick, Canada) is a eurypterid

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 July 2015

Randall F. Miller  and
O. Erik Tetlie
Randall F. Miller
Affiliation:
Steinhammer Palaeontology Laboratory, New Brunswick Museum, Saint John, New Brunswick E2K 1E5, Canada,
O. Erik Tetlie
Affiliation:
Department of Geology and Geophysics, Yale University, PO Box 208109, New Haven, Connecticut 06520-8109,
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Extract

The enigmatic Silurian fossil Bunodella horrida Matthew, 1889 was originally described as a crustacean (Matthew, 1889). B. horrida was later included with the pseudoniscid synziphosurines by Størmer (1955) in the Treatise on Invertebrate Paleontology. Bunodella Matthew, 1889 was subsequently dismissed as a merostome in later treatments (Eldredge, 1974; Anderson and Selden, 1997). However, the type and only known specimen (Fig. 1), housed in the New Brunswick Museum (NBMG), has not been re-studied since Matthew's initial description. Reexamination of this fossil has led us to interpret it as the partial coxa of a pterygotid eurypterid swimming leg. The coxa is likely to belong to Acutiramus Ruedemann, 1935 rather than any other pterygotid, but it cannot be further separated from other species in the genus and is left as Acutiramus sp. A more precise assignment must await more diagnostic material (e.g., chelicerae). The genus Bunodella Matthew, 1889 is therefore deemed invalid and its usage discontinued. Bunodella Pfeffer, 1889 was also established as a genus of a modern hexacoralline anemone based on a single species, B. georgiana Pfeffer, 1889, but has since been reassigned to the genus Parantheopsis McMurrich, 1904 by Carlgren (1949) along with several other species of anenome.

Type
Paleontological Notes
Information
Journal of Paleontology , Volume 81 , Issue 3 , May 2007 , pp. 588 - 590
Copyright
Copyright © The Paleontological Society 

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