A new large edrioasteroid from the Seifen Formation of the Westerwald, Rhenish Massif (Lower Devonian, Germany)
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RESEARCH ARTICLE
A new large edrioasteroid from the Seifen Formation of the Westerwald, Rhenish Massif (Lower Devonian, Germany) Peter Müller1 · Gerhard Hahn2 Received: 5 September 2019 / Accepted: 22 June 2020 © Paläontologische Gesellschaft 2020
Abstract A large new edrioasteroid genus from the Seifen Formation (Lower Devonian, Germany), Seifenia gen. nov., is introduced. The type species, S. ostara sp. nov., is described and figured, and its systematic position is discussed. Seifenia shows a highly derived evolutionary position in comparison with other Lower Devonian genera. With a diameter up to 57 mm, it is the largest known domal genus of the Agelacrinitidae. Most specimens of S. ostara are not found in contact with the substrate. Possible reasons for this phenomenon are discussed. Furthermore, synecological interactions of Seifenia with brachiopods and auloporid corals are documented. Keywords Echinodermata · Edrioasteroidea · Seifenia gen. nov. · Lower Devonian · Westerwald · Rhenish Massiv · Germany
Introduction In a series of papers, Müller and Hahn (2010, 2017a, 2018) described the abundant and well-preserved edrioasteroid fauna from the Seifen Formation (middle Lower Devonian) at Niederähren near Seifen (Seifen III) in the Westerwald. These papers documented fossil preservation, ecology and geographic and stratigraphic setting of these fossils. The following taxa were described: Pyrgocystis? postpetalus, Eopostibulla pustulata, Agelacrinites thor, Krama? germanicum, and Parakrama grebelae and the paedomorphic taxa Sumrallia rseiberti and Westerwalddiscus poschmanni. Furthermore, these papers remark on synecology and interactions of the edrioasteroids with bryozoans and anthozoans. Here, we add Seifenia ostara gen. et sp. nov. to the Seifen fauna from the Seifen III locality. This high-diversity edrioasteroid fauna comprising eight genera is among the most important edrioasteroid Handling Editor: Mike Reich. * Peter Müller mueller‑lgh@t‑online.de Gerhard Hahn [email protected] 1
Am Grauen Stein 4, 56244 Freilingen, Germany
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occurrences on a global scale. The spatially restricted occurrence of edrioasteroids within the Seifen III site is interpreted as a shell-coquina consisting mainly of brachiopods and bivalves, the shells of which were secondarily colonized by different organisms (Grigo 1997; Müller and Hahn 2018). Palaeogeographically, the depositional setting was situated close to the coast and within the reach of wave bases on the southern continental shelf of Laurussia.
Materials and methods The method of treating and documenting the fossils, as well as the used terminology, is given in Bell (1976), Sumrall and Parsley (2003), Müller and Hahn (2010), Sumrall and Waters (2012), Kammer et al. (2013). The fossils are mainly preserved as “steinkerns” and thus our descriptions are based on silicon casts made from natural molds in sediment.
Repository Specimens with PWL collection numbers are stored in the Landessammlung für Naturkunde Rheinla
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