The Strud crustacean fauna (Late Devonian, Belgium): updated review and palaeoecology of an early continental ecosystem

Arthropods are the first animals to colonize land habitats, with myriapods and arachnids having done so at least by the Silurian. Much later several lineages of Pancrustacea (hexapods and the paraphyletic crustaceans) also venture onto land: the hexapods by the Early Devonian, and later at least four other groups of pancrustaceans, namely isopods, amphipods, ostracods and decapods, which most generally colonised the continental water bodies. All faced a series of challenges, in particular gas exchange, desiccation, reproduction, osmoregulation and exposure to ultraviolet radiation, resulting i... Mehr ...

Verfasser: Gueriau, Pierre
Rabet, Nicolas
Du Tien Hat, Eva
Dokumenttyp: posted-content
Erscheinungsdatum: 2018
Verlag/Hrsg.: Center for Open Science
Sprache: unknown
Permalink: https://search.fid-benelux.de/Record/base-27386031
Datenquelle: BASE; Originalkatalog
Powered By: BASE
Link(s) : http://dx.doi.org/10.31233/osf.io/px6wq

Arthropods are the first animals to colonize land habitats, with myriapods and arachnids having done so at least by the Silurian. Much later several lineages of Pancrustacea (hexapods and the paraphyletic crustaceans) also venture onto land: the hexapods by the Early Devonian, and later at least four other groups of pancrustaceans, namely isopods, amphipods, ostracods and decapods, which most generally colonised the continental water bodies. All faced a series of challenges, in particular gas exchange, desiccation, reproduction, osmoregulation and exposure to ultraviolet radiation, resulting in many morphological, physiological and ecological adaptations. Nonetheless, whether they reached land via salt or freshwater remains poorly documented, mainly because relevant localities are few. The Famennian (Late Devonian) Strud locality in Belgium provided an exceptional source of information on early aquatic continental ecosystems and their plant, vertebrate and arthropod colonizers at a crucial step in the terrestrialization process. Here, we review and update its crustacean fauna, which inhabited floodplain and temporary pool waters. New anatomical details of the notostracan Strudops goldenbergi Lagebro et al., 2015, as well as a new genus and species of spinicaudatan, are described. We also discuss the ecology of this unique, early continental ecosystem and its insights into the terrestrialization process.