Early Devonian stylonurine eurypterids from Arctic Canada

• Published in: Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences
• Main Authors: Lamsdell, James C., Braddy, Simon J., Loeffler, Elizabeth J., Dineley, David L.
• Other Authors: Jin, Jisuo
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Canadian Science Publishing 2010
• Subjects: General Earth and Planetary Sciences; Arctic; Nunavut; Prince of Wales Island
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1139/e10-053; http://www.nrcresearchpress.com/doi/full-xml/10.1139/E10-053; http://www.nrcresearchpress.com/doi/pdf/10.1139/E10-053

Two new stylonurine eurypterids are described from the Peel Sound Formation (Early Devonian, Lochkovian) of the northern coast of Prince of Wales Island, Nunavut, Arctic Canada. Associations including pteraspids and ostracodes indicate a fluvial depositional environment. An almost complete stylonurid, Pagea plotnicki sp. nov., is recognized by its large size and lack of vaulting on the carapace, and it provides evidence that Stylonurus and Pagea are sister-taxa. Also, a smaller incomplete rhenopterid assigned to Leiopterella tetliei gen. et sp. nov., is characterized by its broad turbinate carapace and lack of cuticular sculpture. This assemblage provides the first Canadian record of Pagea, and the youngest occurrence of a rhenopterid outside the Rheno-Hercynian Terrane, indicating that these taxa were more geographically widespread than previously supposed.