Kleptothule rasmusseni gen. et sp. nov.: an ?olenellinid-like trilobite from the Sirius Passet fauna (Buen Formation, Lower Cambrian, North Greenland)

• Published in: Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh: Earth Sciences
• Main Author: Budd, Graham E.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Cambridge University Press (CUP) 1995
• Subjects: Greenland; North Greenland; Peary Land
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0263593300002121; https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0263593300002121

Abstract The Lower Cambrian Sirius Passet fauna from Peary Land, North Greenland, is a rich repository of soft-bodied and poorly-sclerotised fossils. A new arthropod from the fauna, Kleptothule rasmusseni , is described. The animal is broadly trilobite-like, possessing a trilobed exoskeleton which is divided into distinct cephalic, thoracic and caudal regions. However, it is unusual in that it possesses a large number of segments, and demonstrates pronounced cephalic segmentation, and a very narrow cephalon and thorax. There is some evidence that the exoskeleton was lightly mineralised. Kleptothule is compared to some of the olenellimd trilobites, especially those taxa that possess a many-segmented ‘opisthothorax’. Its morphology raises some issues discussed by Lauterbach (1983) in his assignment of some olenellids to the stem-group of the chelicerates. However, it is not considered herein that such a model can be supported. A complete analysis of basal trilobites and the stem-group leading to them must await a fuller description of key taxa from China and Greenland.