The morphologic and paleobiogeographic implications of a new early Silurian echinoid from Anticosti Island, Quebec, Canada

The Ordovician and Silurian are an exceptionally important interval of time for understanding the effects of ancient climate change on the paleobiodiversity of echinoderms. Despite this importance, the fossil record of many echinoderm groups during this interval is sparse. The echinoids, or sea urchins, are no exception; and new fossil finds are necessary to better understand their initial diversification during the lower Paleozoic. We herein report on material from a new genus and species of echinoid, Anticostiechinus petryki gen. et sp. nov., from the Silurian of Anticosti Island, Canada. The morphology of the tubercles and spines of A. petryki are atypical for echinoids, and the surfaces for spine articulation consist of rounded, concave indentations. Additionally, the bases of the spines are subspherical. Furthermore, A. petryki belongs to the family Echinocystitidae, which increases the known diversity and distribution of this family during the Silurian and provides insight into the biogeography of echinocystitids from the Silurian to Devonian.

echinoderms, extinction, fossil, sea urchins

10.1139/cjes-2022-0028

0008-4077

973-983

Thompson, Jeffrey R.

d2c9b7bb-3e33-4918-97c8-0c36e7af30a4

Ausich, William I.

49ea18bc-254f-4c13-8b62-d07ee1591aa7

Cournoyer, Mario E.

7277a6f6-4e00-499d-b3c6-24668ef91147

Thompson, Jeffrey R.

d2c9b7bb-3e33-4918-97c8-0c36e7af30a4

Ausich, William I.

49ea18bc-254f-4c13-8b62-d07ee1591aa7

Cournoyer, Mario E.

7277a6f6-4e00-499d-b3c6-24668ef91147

Thompson, Jeffrey R., Ausich, William I. and Cournoyer, Mario E. (2022) The morphologic and paleobiogeographic implications of a new early Silurian echinoid from Anticosti Island, Quebec, Canada. Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences, 59 (12), 973-983. (doi:10.1139/cjes-2022-0028).

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e-pub ahead of print date: 5 December 2022

Additional Information: Funding Information: This paper is a continuation of fieldwork supported by the National Geographic Society (Grant No. 6789-00) and the National Science Foundation (EAR-0205968) and was partially supported in various ways by The Ohio State University. J. Thompson was also funded by a Leverhulme Trust Early Career Fellowship. P. Copper, J. Jin, and A. Desrochers were stratigraphic and geographic guides during most Anticosti field seasons. We thank Allen A. Petryk for having made his extensive collections available for study and hope that his field notebooks clarifying his fossil collecting sites will eventually be found. Additionally, thanks are due to J. Iellamo, who prepared the specimens, and J. Leonard-Pingle (The Ohio State University), who helped with image-stacking photography. The authors also thank Samuel Zamora and Colin Sumrall for their thoughtful reviews. For the purpose of open access, the author has applied a CC BY public copyright licence to any Author Accepted Manuscript version arising from this submission. Publisher Copyright: © 2022 Trustees of the Natural History Museum and Authors Ausich and Cournoyer.

Keywords: echinoderms, extinction, fossil, sea urchins

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