Bathynotus
gaotanensis
Trilobites
Order Redlichiida, Family Chenkouaspidae
Geological
Time: Early Middle Cambrian
Size (25.4
mm = 1 inch): 8 mm across by 14 mm long on a 20 mm by 18 mm matrix
Fossil Site:
Kaili Formation, Maiobanpo Section, Taijiang County, Kaili, Guizhou Province,
China
Fossil Code:
KB02
Price: $75.00
Description:
The Kaili Biota of Guiznou Province China, like the fantastic Chengjiang
and Burgess Shale Fauna, preserve some of the earliest radiations
of complex life known on the planet. The formation is some 220 m
in thickness and spans the Late Early to Early Middle Cambrian.
As such it is intermediate in age between the Changjiang and Burgess
Shale Faunas. Representatives of some 110 genera are known, representing
11 phyla. The Kaili Biota includes both soft-bodied and skeletonized
animals, and is dominated by trilobites, with eocinoids as the second
most common fossil. It shares roughly 30 genera in common with Chengjiang
and nearly 40 with the Burgess Shale. The presence of Burgess Shale–like
fauna over a large part of southwestern China shows that the faunal
community was quite cosmopolitan in nature, indicating that preservation
was more of a factor in finding these concentrations of animals
than was the existence of isolated communities suitable for harboring
these myriad life forms.
This
trilobite is Bathynotus gaotanensis. Bathynotus was the patronymic
genus of the Bathynotidae, a family whose ordinal status was in
dispute. The members of the genus have recently been assigned to
the Chengkouaspidae, a family within the Redlichiida. Trilobites
from this timeframe were members of the Redlichiida, Ptychopariida,
Corynexochida, and the Agnostida, with the balance of the orders
appearing later in time. Members of this faunal assemblage are very
rarely offered for sale; the items I am offering now represent only
the second time I have been able to secure any examples, and the
first trilobites from the region I have ever had.
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