New data for Athabaskia anax (Walcott, 1916) (Middle Cambrian, Trilobita, Corynexochida) from the Mendoza Precordillera, Argentina
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.21701/bolgeomin.125.4.006Keywords:
Cambrian Series 3, Mendoza, Argentine Precordillera, trilobitesAbstract
A taxonomic revision of the corynexochid trilobite Clavaspidella digesta from the Mendoza Precordillera (Argentina) has been made and is now reassigned as Athabaskia anax from the Great Basin of the USA. Mendospidella asperoensis, Mendospidella quebradensis and Mendospidella digesta specimens are also included. The genus Mendospidella is considered a junior synonym of Athabaskia. New materials collected by the author complete the morphological variation of this species. The trilobites were found in the San Isidro locality of Mendoza, in the Argentine Precordillera. They commonly occur in the Cambrian olistolites hosted in the pelitic ordovician olistostromic Empozada Formation. The biostratigraphic distribution of A. anax is Middle Cambrian, Marjumian Stage, Oryctocephalus Zone in the conventional Laurentian chronology, which is equivalent to the International Subcommission on Cambrian Stratigraphy (ISCS) scale to the Cambrian Series 3, upper Stage 5 of Cambrian. Its presence in western Argentina is further evidence for the very close faunal relationship between the Precordillera Terrane and Laurentia during the Cambrian.
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