Early Land Animals in North America: Evidence from Devonian Age Arthropods from Gilboa, New York

Abstract

A new fossil site near Gilboa, New York, is one of only three where fossils of terrestrial arthropods of Devonian age have been found. The new Gilboan fauna is younger than the other two but richer in taxa. Fragmentary remains and nearly whole specimens assigned to Eurypterida, Arachnida (Trigonotarbida, Araneae, Amblypygi, and Acari), Chilopoda [Craterostigmatomorpha(?) and Scuterigeromorpha(?)], and tentatively to Insecta (Archaeognatha) have been found. The centipedes and possible insects may represent the earliest records known for these groups.

Early Insect Diversification: Evidence from a Lower Devonian Bristletail from Québec

“…-I-(Thysanura + Pterygota)]} relationship {1, 10,24). The occurrence of Early Devonian representatives from both of the major hexapodan dades•two families of coUembolan entognaths and an archaeognathan ectognath (2,3,11,12,20,25)•is noteworthy. These taxa respectively represent two distinctive mouthpart types during the Early Devonian {2, 25), indicating that both piercing and chewing were major functional feeding modes.…”

The development of early terrestrial ecosystems

“…peat) and within galleries in wood in a coal ball (Baxendale, 1979;Scott & Taylor, 1983). Coprolites are also known from the Lower Carboniferous of France and Scotland (Scott, 1977;Scott, Chaloner&Paterson, 1985;Rex&Galtier, 1986) Norton et al (1988), Norton et al (1989), Schawaller, Shear & Bonamo (1991), Selden, Shear & Bonamo (1991), Shear (1986), , Shear et al (1984), Shear et al (1987); Rhynie -Hirst (1922), Hirst & Maulik (1926); Ludford Lane -Jeram, Selden & Edwards (1990); Alkenan-der-Mosel - St0rmer (1970-76); Rheinischen Schiefergebirge -Schultka (1991).…”

“…The trigonotarbid arachnids found at all the Devonian sites ( Fig. 1) bear chelicerae which belong to the typical pulmonale arachnid type (Shear et al, 1987) and, whilst it is possible they could have inflicted a wound on a Rhynia stem, to do so would involve unnatural contortions of the animal! Their chelicera bears a fang which opposes a group of large teeth and both hand and fang bear brushes of setae; the chelicera is apparenUy optimized for gripping prey whilst externally digested fluids are sucked into the mouth.…”

Arthropod cuticles from the upper Viséan (Mississippian) of eastern Germany

“…Finds of terrestrial arthropods are dominated by different ontogenetic stages (13 mm to 700 mm) of the giant Pulmonoscorpius kirktonensis, the top predator on land (Jeram 1994b). Several myriapods (Shear 1994) are known as well as one harvestman (Dunlop & Anderson 2005). Eurypterids are represented by the up to 1.5 m long supposedly amphibious-terrestrial Hibbertopterus scouleri (Jeram & Selden, 1994) (Whyte 2005).…”

“…The preservation of fossil arthropods in general is, however, not restricted to adpressions. Several arthropod cuticles were described from the Palaeozoic, mainly from the Devonian (e.g., Størmer 1970Størmer , 1976Rolfe 1980;Shear et al 1984) and Pennsylvanian (e.g., Winslow 1959, Bartram et al 1987, Jeram 1994a, Braun 1997, Stankiewicz et al 1998. Cuticles can provide additional information on morphological features, which cannot be gained in such detail from adpression remains.…”