The Upper Carboniferous Piesberg quarry close to Osnabrück, in Lower Saxony, Germany, has provided a high number of exceptionally preserved fossils of Euarthropoda. This includes “horseshoe crabs” (Xiphosurida), scorpions (Scorpionida), and other now extinct forms of Euchelicerata, namely spider-like species of Trigonotarbida, remains of true spiders (Arthrolycosa) and Phalangiotarbida Furthermore, representatives of Insecta have also been recorded. Here we report on the remains of a pygocephalomorphan crustacean, a representative of an extinct, possibly non-monophyletic, ingroup of Eumalacostraca. The comparison to other pygocephalomorphan fossils from the literature suggests that it is a record of Anthracaris gracilis, a species previously reported from the Pennsylvanian Konservat-Lagerstätten of Mazon Creek, Moscovian of the U.S.A., and Bickershaw, Bashkirian-Moscovian of England. The frequency and geographical distribution of eumalacostracan records from several Carboniferous deposits of North America, the UK, and continental Europe shows that Hoplocarida is the predominant group throughout the Carboniferous faunas, followed by Pygocephalomorpha in the Mississippian and Syncarida in the Pennsylvanian. Anthracaris gracilis is not the only faunal overlap between the Piesberg quarry, Mazon Creek, and the Bickershaw Lagerstätte; other such similarities are briefly listed and further emphasize a “faunal continuum” that persisted during the early Pennsylvanian across the deltaic depositional environments of North America, the UK, and continental Europe. |
