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''Redlichia'' is a genus of redlichiid
The type species, ''R. noetlingi'', is found in Lower Cambrian-aged marine strata of Western Pakistan. A similar species, ''R. chinensis'', is found in Lower Cambrian-aged marine strata of China. ''R. nobilis'', is found in Lower Cambrian-aged marine strata of South Korea. It was originally thought that the Kangaroo Island species, ''R. takooensis'', had a small form and a large form: more thorough studies have concluded that the "large morph" is a distinct, carnivorous, possibly cannibalistic species now named ''R. rex.''
trilobite
Trilobites (; meaning "three lobes") are extinct marine arthropods that form the class Trilobita. Trilobites form one of the earliest-known groups of arthropods. The first appearance of trilobites in the fossil record defines the base of the ...
in the family Redlichiidae
Redlichiidae is a family of redlichiid trilobites which lived from the Botomian to the Middle Cambrian period. It contains the following genera, divided between five subfamilies:
Redlichiinae
* ''Redlichia'' (type genus)
* '' Conoredlichia''
...
, with large to very large species (up to long). Fossils of various species are found in Lower Cambrian (Toyonian)-aged marine strata from China, Korea, Pakistan, the Himalayas
The Himalayas, or Himalaya (; ; ), is a mountain range in Asia, separating the plains of the Indian subcontinent from the Tibetan Plateau. The range has some of the planet's highest peaks, including the very highest, Mount Everest. Over 10 ...
, Iran, Spain, southern Siberia
South Central Siberia is a geographical region north of the point where Russia, China, Kazakhstan and Mongolia come together.
Regions of Asia
North Asia
The Four Corners
At approximately , the borders of Russia, China, Mongolia and Kaz ...
, and Antarctica, and from Middle Cambrian (Ordian)-aged marine strata of Australia.
Description
''Redlichia'' has a rather flat and thinly calcifieddorsal
Dorsal (from Latin ''dorsum'' ‘back’) may refer to:
* Dorsal (anatomy), an anatomical term of location referring to the back or upper side of an organism or parts of an organism
* Dorsal, positioned on top of an aircraft's fuselage
* Dorsal c ...
exoskeleton
An exoskeleton (from Greek ''éxō'' "outer" and ''skeletós'' "skeleton") is an external skeleton that supports and protects an animal's body, in contrast to an internal skeleton ( endoskeleton) in for example, a human. In usage, some of the ...
of inverted egg-shaped outline, about 1½× longer than wide, measured across the base of the genal spines and disregarding the spine on the 11th segment of the articulated middle part of the body (or thorax
The thorax or chest is a part of the anatomy of humans, mammals, and other tetrapod animals located between the neck and the abdomen. In insects, crustaceans, and the extinct trilobites, the thorax is one of the three main divisions of the c ...
). The headshield (or cephalon
Cephalon, Inc. was an American biopharmaceutical company co-founded in 1987 by pharmacologist Frank Baldino, Jr., neuroscientist Michael Lewis, and organic chemist James C. Kauer—all three former scientists with the DuPont Company. Baldino s ...
) is semicircular, about ⅓× as long as the body, with clear genal spines that are a smooth continuation of the border, that extend backward and outward and curving to be near parallel near their tips, which typically extend to the backhalf of the articulated middle part of the body (or thorax
The thorax or chest is a part of the anatomy of humans, mammals, and other tetrapod animals located between the neck and the abdomen. In insects, crustaceans, and the extinct trilobites, the thorax is one of the three main divisions of the c ...
). The thorax consists of 11-17 segments, with the 11th from the front bearing a backward directed spine on the midline.
Taxonomy
Redlich originally named the genus ''Hoeferia'' in 1899. It turned out however, that this name was already given to an arcid bivalve by Bittner in 1894, rendering it an unavailable juniorhomonym
In linguistics, homonyms are words which are homographs (words that share the same spelling, regardless of pronunciation), or homophones ( equivocal words, that share the same pronunciation, regardless of spelling), or both. Using this definitio ...
. This is why in 1902, Cossmann renamed ''Hoeferia'' Redlich, 1899 as ''Redlichia'', in honor of Redlich.
''Mesodema'' Whitehouse, 1939, ''Dongshania'' Lin in Qiu et al., 1983, and ''Spinoredlichia'' Liu, 1975, are all considered to be synonyms of ''Redlichia''.
Notable species
The type species, ''R. noetlingi'', is found in Lower Cambrian-aged marine strata of Western Pakistan. A similar species, ''R. chinensis'', is found in Lower Cambrian-aged marine strata of China. ''R. nobilis'', is found in Lower Cambrian-aged marine strata of South Korea. It was originally thought that the Kangaroo Island species, ''R. takooensis'', had a small form and a large form: more thorough studies have concluded that the "large morph" is a distinct, carnivorous, possibly cannibalistic species now named ''R. rex.''
Reassigned species
Some of the species that were originally assigned to ''Redlichia'' were later moved to other genera. * ''R. blanckenhorni'' = '' Redlichops blanckenhorni'' * ''R. finalis'' = '' Redlichaspis finalis'' * ''R. nakamurai'' = '' Neoredlichia nakamurai'' * ''R. walcotti'' Lu, 1941= '' Archaeops lui'' * ''R. walcotti'' Mansuy, 1912= '' Saukandiops walcotti'' * ''R. cf. walcotti'' Saito, 1934= '' Latiredlichia saitoi''References
Further reading
* * * * * {{Taxonbar, from=Q1246618 Redlichiidae Redlichiida genera Cambrian trilobites Index fossils Cambrian trilobites of Asia Cambrian genus extinctions