Eoredlichia
intermedia
Trilobite
Order Redlichiida, Family Redlichiiidae
Geological
Time: Early Cambrian (~525 million years ago)
Size (25.4mm=1
inch): 12 mm long by 18 mm wide and 9 mm long by 8 mm wide on a 150 mm
by 55 mm and 48 mm by 22 mm matrix
Fossil
Site: Chengjiang Maotianshan Shales - Quiongzhusi Section, Yu’anshan
Member, Heilinpu Formation, Haiyi Village, Anning, Yunnan Province, China
Fossil Code:
CJF205
Price: $425.00
Description:
This trilobite is a member of the Order Redlichiida, Family Redlichiidae
from the Early Cambrian Heilinpu Formation deposits near Anning,
in Kunming County, Yunnan Province, China, known as Eoredlichia
intermedia. The species is one found in several locations within
Yunnan Province in what is termed the Chegjiang Biota by Hou Xian-guang
in 1984. The diversity of soft-tissue fossils is astonishing: algae,
medusiforms, sponges, priapulids, annelid-like worms, echinoderms,
arthropods
(including trilobites), hemichordates, chordates, and the first
agnathan fish make up just a small fraction of the total. Numerous
problematic forms are known as well, some of which may have represented
failed attempts at diversity that did not persist to the present
day.
The
Redlichioids of this type are considered to be the sister-group
comprising all of the “higher” (non-Olenelloid) trilobites
by Richard Fortey. Eoredlichia is thought to have lived on or close
to the seafloor. Based upon its spinose limb bases and braced hypostome,
it is thought by some researchers to have led a predatory existence.
While this specimen has repaired cracks to the matrix, it is still
a highly desirable specimen due to its association with the Chengjiang
Biota that made up a glimpse of the Cambrian Explosion some 5-10
million years before the Burgess Shale fauna came into being. Part/counterpart
examples with such detail are rarely offered for sale. Notice the
sweeping spines that have been preserved. There is a second smaller
example to be seen accompanying the counterpart making for a multiple
example. I have included an artist’s (my daughter’s)
rendition of its appearance in life.
Also
see: Chengjiang
Biota Fauna List Chengjiang
Fossils
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