Annelids from the Lower Devonian Hunsrück Slate (Lower Emsian, Rhenish Massif, Germany)

Abstract

Four new genera and species of annelid, Hunsrueckochaeta hohensteini, Ewaldips feyi, Crocancistrius lutzi and Scopyrites magnus, are described from the Hunsrück Slate (Lower Emsian) of Germany, as well as new material of Bundenbachochaeta eschenbachensis Bartels and Blind, 1995. The specimens preserve details of the appendages and other aspects of the morphology as a result of pyritization. A phylogenetic analysis using the morphological data matrix of Rouse and Fauchald places four of the five genera basal to the Aciculata; the fifth Ewaldips falls within the Scolecida. The diversity of annelids represented in the Hunsrück Slate is similar to that in the other major Palaeozoic Konservat-Lagerstätten that yield them, including the Cambrian Burgess Shale and the Late Carboniferous Mazon Creek biota. © The Palaeontological Association.