RT Journal Article
T1 Humble origins for a successful strategy: complete enrolment in early Cambrian olenellid trilobites
A1 Ortega Hernández, Javier
A1 Esteve Serrano, Jorge Vicente
A1 Butterfield, Nicholas J.
AB Trilobites are typified by the behavioural and morphological ability to enrol their bodies, most probably as a defence mechanism against adverse environmental conditions or predators. Although most trilobites could enrol at least partially, there is uncertainty about whether olenellids—among the most phylogenetically and stratigraphically basal representatives—could perform this behaviour because of their poorly caudalized trunk and scarcity of coaptative devices. Here, we report complete—but not encapsulating—enrolment for the olenellid genus Mummaspis from the early Cambrian Mural Formation in Alberta, the earliest direct evidence of this strategy in the fossil record of polymerid trilobites. Complete enrolment in olenellids was achieved through a combination of ancestral morphological features, and thus provides new information on the character polarity associated with this key trilobite adaptation.
PB Royal Society
YR 2013
FD 2013
LK https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/98396
UL https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/98396
LA eng
NO Ortega-Hernández, Javier, et al. «Humble Origins for a Successful Strategy: Complete Enrolment in Early Cambrian Olenellid Trilobites». Biology Letters, vol. 9, n.o 5, octubre de 2013, p. 20130679. https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2013.0679.
NO Consejo Nacional de Humanidades, Ciencias y Tecnologías (México)
NO Secretaría de Educación Pública (México)
NO University of Cambridge Trusts
NO Darwin College
NO Chinese Academy of Sciences
DS Docta Complutense
RD 6 abr 2025