Rodney Feldmann

Kent State University | KSU · Department of Geology

The end-Permian mass extinction led to the disappearance of >81% of marine species and the collapse of marine ecosystems. Despite the progress made in recent years, the severity of the impact of the mass extinction upon some groups still remains unclear. Horseshoe crabs are a typical example among these groups. Here we report a new fossil horseshoe...

A new genus and species of cyclidan Magnitocyclus struveae gen. et sp. nov., from the Mississippian of the Urals is described and illustrated. It is the first reliable record of a cyclidan in the Upper Viséan-Lower Serpukhovian of Russia. Petschorocaris kozhimensis, from the Permian of the Pechora Coal Basin (Russia), is not a cyclidan but is appar...

A single concretion derived from the Miocene Greta Siltstone in North Canterbury, South Island, New Zealand, contains an adult and a juvenile individual of Trichopeltarion greggiDell, 1969. The association of an adult female and a juvenile brachyuran of the same species has not been documented previously in the fossil record. Condition of the chalk...

Two well preserved specimens of nephropid lobster from the Late Cretaceous (late Campanian) Point Loma Formation in San Diego County, California, form the basis of description of a new species of Hoploparia. The occurrence represents the southernmost fossil record of macrurans along the Pacific coast of North America and it is only the third fossil...

Malayacyclus terengganuensis, a new genus and species of the Cyclida (Crustacea), is reported from the Early Carboniferous (Visean) of Terengganu, eastern Peninsular Malaysia (East Malaya Block). The new genus possesses diagnostic features of both families Cyclidae and Americlidae. Plus, it develops the trifurcate posterior spines: a unique morphol...

The Society of Vertebrate Paleontology (SVP) has recently circulated a letter, dated 21st April, 2020, to more than 300 palaeontological journals, signed by the President, Vice President and a former President of the society (Rayfield et al. 2020). In this letter, significant changes to the common practices in palaeontology are requested. In our pr...

The Society of Vertebrate Paleontology (SVP) has recently circulated a letter, dated 21st April, 2020, to more than 300 palaeontological journals, signed by the President, Vice President and a former President of the society (Rayfield et al. 2020). In this letter, significant changes to the common practices in palaeontology are requested. In our pr...

Recently, the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology (SVP) has sent around a letter, dated 21st April, 2020 to more than 300 palaeontological journals, signed by the President, Vice President and a former President of the society (Rayfield et al. 2020). The signatories of this letter request significant changes to the common practices in palaeontology....

All cyclidan species represented by existing material are illustrated photographically. New genera within Cyclidae include Ambocyclus new genus; Carabicyclus new genus; Chernyshevine new genus, Litocyclus new genus; and Tazawacyclus new genus with the following new combinations: A.). A neotype is herein designated for Halicyne plana. Each family wi...

A collection of decapod fossils from the Miocene St. Marys Formation, Little Cove Point Member (Maryland, USA), yielded six species belonging to three genera of brachyuran crabs, NecronectesA. Milne-Edwards, 1881, CallinectesStimpson, 1860, and CancerLinnaeus, 1758. Cancer included four species, Cancer irroratusSay, 1817; C. borealisStimpson, 1859;...

The description of a new species of an erymid lobster, Stenodactylina beardi, from the Upper Cretaceous Haslam Formation of the Nanaimo Group on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada, brings to fifteen the number of Erymidae in North America. The species are arrayed within five genera based upon configuration of carapace groove morphology, res...

In the comment on our paper (this issue), Zatoń (2020) questions the conclusions reported in Błażejowski et al. (2019). We present further arguments defending our theses. Late Jurassic horseshoe crabs preserved in sediments of the Kcynia Formation, (Owadów-Brzezinki Quarry), lived in a restricted lagoon repeatedly subjected to dysoxia/anoxia, which...

The best-preserved Scottish species of a cyclidan is reinterpreted, based upon recent advances in cyclidan paleobiology. Americlus rankini (Woodward, 1868) is one of the best-preserved members of this crustacean group, and its morphology suggests that it and related forms exhibited a unique and distinct morphology within Multicrustacea. Paleoecolog...

Discovery of a single specimen of a nearly complete cephalothorax and pleon of a new arthropod from the Late Devonian (Famennian) Chagrin Shale Member of the Ohio Shale Formation in Lake County, northeastern Ohio, USA documents the oldest known representative of the Axiidea. The specimen documents a new genus and species, Devonoaxius garlandi, and...

Within the crustacean group Cyclida, Prolatcyclus gen. nov. includes two species, Prolatcyclus martinensis (Goldring, 1967) and P. kindzadza sp. nov., described from the Lower Carboniferous (Mississippian, upper Viséan) of England and the Southern Urals of Russia, respectively. Members of the genus have a unique feature for cyclids – large hypertro...

The Cyclida comprise six families embracing 55 species in 17 genera. Diagnoses for each family based upon examination of type and referred material as well as photographs of specimens previously known only from drawings has confirmed that four of the families, Cyclidae Packard, 1885; Americlidae Dzik, 2008; Halicynidae Gall & Grauvogel, 1967; and S...

An incomplete arthropod fossil, Tricarina gadvanensis Feldmann et al., 2007, from the Lower Cretaceous (Barremian–Aptian) of Iran, originally interpreted as a lobster (Malacostraca, Eucarida, Decapoda), is reinterpreted herein as a representative of a seroloid isopod crustacean (Malacostraca, Peracarida, Isopoda). The body orientation of the fossil...

Neohelice granulata is an endemic, burrowing intertidal species of crab distributed in mudflats and saltmarshes of bays and lagoons along the coast, from southern Brazil to northern Patagonia (Argentina). It is widely known in modern population studies dealing with ecology, genetics, physiology, and burrowing. However, it is known in the fossil rec...

Examination of 36 specimens of the Pennsylvanian horseshoe crab Euproops danae (Meek & Worthen, 1865) from a previously unreported occurrence in the lower Mercer Shale exposed in an abandoned strip mine south from Windber, Pennsylvania, USA, document ontogen-etic changes in prosomal morphology. Intercardiophthalmic transverse bars become less prono...

Full text available at: https://advances.sciencemag.org/content/5/4/eaav3875/tab-pdf. Evolutionary origins of novel forms are often obscure because early and transitional fossils tend to be rare, poorly preserved, or lack proper phylogenetic contexts. We describe a new, exceptionally preserved enigmatic crab from the mid-Cretaceous of Colombia and...

Investigation of decapod crustaceans from Paleogene sediments of Mississippi has yielded one new Eocene brachyuran species, Matutites periosusn. sp., and six new Oligocene brachyuran species, Lophoranina linckin. sp., Notopus adinaen. sp., Calappilia granulosan. sp., C. perreaultin. sp., C. gableorumn. sp., and Acanthocarpus osbornin. sp. Other occ...

Specimens collected from the Lower Cretaceous (Albian) Hudspeth Formation, Oregon, are referable to Anoplocarcinus hudspethi new genus, new species. The new taxon is supported by phylogenetic analysis as well as comparison to type and referred material within Orithopsidae of Raninoida. Albian decapods are rare from the Pacific Coast of North Americ...

Fossil caridean shrimp of Palaemonidae are reasonably common in Cretaceous and Oligocene deposits of Brazil. Reexamination of species assigned to Pseudocaridinella Martins-Neto and Mezzalira, 1991b, indicate that a new genus, Bahiacaris n. gen., must accommodate one of the referred species, Bahiacaris roxoi new combination. Palaemonidae invaded fre...

Approximately 10% of Late Jurassic (Tithonian) horseshoe crabs collected from the Kcynia Formation in the Owadów-Brzezinki Quarry, Central Poland, display microborings covering the entire carapace of specimens. Detailed examination of the surrounding sediment indicates the occurrence of short-term fluctuations in the oxygenation level of bottom wat...

Among brachyuran decapods, grooming of sensory and respiratory surfaces is common; however, general body grooming is not well developed. The external surfaces of crab carapaces often become colonized by epibionts, and brachyurans exhibit many types of behavior to remove them by grooming. Four species of well-preserved crabs from lower to middle Cen...

The late Oligocene to earliest Miocene upper part of the Lincoln Creek Formation in Washington state, USA, has yielded a new species of portunoid crab, Maeandricampus starri. Hiatus concretions enclosing the new species have a complex taphonomic history, preserving at least 12 different events during the course of fossilization and uplift of sedime...

Late Jurassic carbonate sediments from the Carpathian Mountains of Romania have yielded a diverse assemblage of decapod crustaceans. Galatheoidea and Dromiacea dominate the assemblages. New species include Abyssophthalmus adinae, Longodromites aubreyae, Prosopon barbulescuae, and Tanidromites starzykae, in addition to one new genus, Pilidromia. Div...

A new helminthomorph millipede, Sinosoma luopingense new genus new species, from the Triassic Luoping biota of China, has 39 body segments, metazonites with lateral swellings that bear a pair of posterolateral pits (?insertion pits for spine bases), and sternites that are unfused to the pleurotergites. This millipede shares a number of characters w...

Cirolana centinelensis, a new species of fossil cirolanid isopod from the early Miocene of Argentina is described, and the fossil record of South American isopods is briefly reviewed. Few fossil isopods are known from South America, and none were previously known from Argentina. The new taxon is represented by a single specimen collected from the E...

Middle Jurassic and Early Cretaceous rocks from Romania have yielded two new genera and three new species of decapod crustaceans, Romaniacheiros lophia n. gen., n. sp., Paraclythia cernavoda n. sp., and Daciapagurus minusculus n. gen. n. sp. New occurrences for Erymidae and Axiidae are also reported.

Fossil decapod crustaceans are reported from eight Late Jurassic localities in Dobrogea, southeastern Romania. Six species are present in this collection, two of which are new, Longodromites akainokkos, and Planoprosopon conspicuus. In this study, localities dominated by sponge bioherms are markedly less diverse than those dominated by coral reefs....

Horseshoe crabs are classic “living fossils”, supposedly slowly evolving, conservative taxa, with a long fossil record back to the Ordovician. The evolution of their exoskeleton is well documented by fossils, but appendage and soft-tissue preservation is extremely rare. Here we analyse details of appendage and soft-tissue preservation in Yunnanolim...

Large plant-eating dinosaurs are usually presumed to have been strictly herbivorous, because their derived teeth and jaws were capable of processing fibrous plant foods. This inferred feeding behavior offers a generalized view of dinosaur food habits, but rare direct fossil evidence of diet provides more nuanced insights into feeding behavior. Here...

Fourteen specimens of cyclidan arthropods form the basis for the description of a new genus and species of Anisian (Middle Triassic) specimens, Yunnanocyclus nodosus n. gen., n. sp., from the Middle Member of the Guanling Formation, Luoping Biota in Yunnan Province, China. Specimens preserve dorsal, ventral, and internal aspects of the morphology o...

The fossil dendrobranchiate shrimp Macropenaeus was originally described from the Upper Cretaceous (Cenomanian) limestones of Hadjoula, northwest Lebanon. A new species, M. sidiaichensis sp. nov., was recovered from the Sidi Aïch Formation in the Northern Chotts Range, southern Tunisia. The Barremian occurrence of the genus in Tunisia suggests that...

An assemblage of isolated carapaces and chelipeds of axioid, anomuran and brachyuran decapods in Late Cretaceous (Turonian) sandstone of the Tres Hermanos Formation is a typical North American Western Interior fauna but the first such occurrence in New Mexico. The callianassid Psammionassa n. gen., is represented by a new species, P. paromola. The...

Fossil decapod crustaceans have been collected in rocks ranging in age from Late Devonian to Pleistocene in rocks of varying lithologies, typically fine siliciclastic rocks, concretions within fine to coarse siliciclastic rocks, and fine-grained to lithographic limestones. The enclosing lithology dictates the manner in which specimens can be prepar...