Novitates PUBLISHED by the AMERICAN MUSEUM of NATURAL HISTORY CENTRAL PARK WEST at 79TH STREET, NEW YORK, N.Y
AMERICAN MUSEUM Novitates PUBLISHED BY THE AMERICAN MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY CENTRAL PARK WEST AT 79TH STREET, NEW YORK, N.Y. 10024 Number 2998, 7 pp., 2 illustrations March 6, 1991 Morocconites Struve, 1989, A Devonian Acastine Trilobite (Calmoniidae: Acastinae) GREGORY D. EDGECOMBE1 ABSTRACT A well-preserved dorsal exoskeleton of Moroc- toides Delo, 1935, with unique modifications of conites malladoides Struve, 1989, from the De- the cephalic border and pygidium. Morocconi- vonian ofMorocco, allows a complete description tinae Struve, 1989, is a subjective synonym ofthe ofthe type species ofthis monotypic genus. Moroc- calmoniid subfamily Acastinae Delo, 1935. conites is most closely related to the acastine Acas- INTRODUCTION Morocconites malladoides Struve, 1989, me to examine a superbly preserved acastine was based on a mostly exfoliated dorsal exo- from Devonian strata at Alnif in the Mo- skeleton from Devonian strata in the Alnif roccan North Sahara. It was determined that area, west of Erfoud, Maider, Morocco. The the outstretched dorsal exoskeleton described species was interpreted as "possibly rooting in this paper is conspecific with the holotype in dalmanitinine dalmanitaceans" and with ofMorocconites malladoides Struve. The new "zeliszkelline/dalmanitinine descent ... ob- specimen provides strong evidence for clos- vious" (Struve, 1989: 567). An independent est relations to taxa classified in the calmoni- genus and subfamily (Morocconitinae Struve, id subfamily Acastinae (notably Acastoides 1989) were established with the hypothesis Delo, 1935). Accordingly, the subfamily Mo- that a "mixture of distinctly divergent char- rocconitinae is removed from the Dalmani- acters of different, clearly separated phyletic tidae, and is regarded as a synonym ofAcas- branches ... seems to root deep in the early tinae (Calmoniidae).
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