1 1 Tommotiids from the early Cambrian (Series 2, stage 3) of Morocco and the evolution of 2 the tannuolinid scleritome and setigerous shell structures in stem group brachiopods 3 4 by CHRISTIAN B. SKOVSTED1, SÉBASTIEN CLAUSEN2, J. JAVIER ÁLVARO3 and 5 DEBORAH PONLEVÉ2 6 7 1 Department of Palaeozoology, Swedish Museum of Natural History, P.O. Box 50007, SE- 8 104 05 Stockholm, Sweden,
[email protected]. 9 2 UMR 8217 Géosystèmes, UFR Sciences de la Terre, Université Lille 1, 10
[email protected],
[email protected]. 11 3 Centro de Astrobiología (CSIC/INTA), Ctra. de Torrejón a Ajalvir km 4, 28850 Torrejón de 12 Ardoz, Spain,
[email protected] 13 14 Abstract: An assemblage of tannuolinid sclerites is described from the Amouslek Formation 15 (Souss Basin) of the Anti-Atlas Mountains in Morocco. The assemblage contains two species, 16 Tannuolina maroccana n. sp. which is represented by a small number of mitral and sellate 17 sclerites and Micrina sp., represented by a single mitral sclerite. Tannuolina maroccana 18 differs from other species of the genus in the presence of both bilaterally symmetrical and 19 strongly asymmetrical sellate sclerites. This observation suggests that the scleritome of 20 Tannuolina was more complex than previously thought and that this tommotiid may have held 21 a more basal position in the brachiopod stem group than previously assumed. The shell 22 structure of both T. maroccana and Micrina sp. is well preserved and exhibits two 23 fundamentally different sets of tubular structures, only one of which was likely to contain 24 shell penetrating setae.