Abstract
Despite its vernacular names (e.g. ‘woodlice’) Isopoda is a group with mostly aquatic species, with most species living in marine environments. The fossil record for isopods compared to other groups of Eucrustacea is relatively sparse. This applies even more for the Triassic. While in the Jurassic Isopoda is relatively well represented by fossils, only eight species have previously been described from the Triassic. In this study three new species of Isopoda are described from two field sites in Europe: Obtusotelson summesbergeri sp. nov. and Discosalaputium aschauerorum sp. nov. from Polzberg (Gaming, Lower Austria, Austria) and Gelrincola winterswijkensis sp. nov. from Winterswijk (Gelderland, Netherlands). All three new species are interpreted as representatives of Scutocoxifera (ingroup of Isopoda). The species Gelrincola winterswijkensis sp. nov. is further interpreted to be a representative of Cymothoida (ingroup of Scutocoxifera). Most of the oldest fossils of Isopoda belong to Phreatoicidea, which is supposed to be the sistergroup to all remaining Isopoda. Nowadays, Phreatoicidea is a small relic group, its representatives living in freshwater environments. The new species herein presented contribute to our understanding of the diversity of Isopoda in the Triassic and support the assumption that the transition from a dominance of Phreatoicidea towards the dominance of the remaining lineages of Isopoda happened quite early (likely prior to the Triassic).
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 145-166 |
| Number of pages | 22 |
| Journal | Bulletin of Geosciences |
| Volume | 95 |
| Issue number | 2 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 2020 |
Funding
This study would not have been possible without Karl and Birgitt Aschauer (Waidhofen an der Ybbs, Austria) who gave access to two of the specimens, which in the course of this study have been donated to the collection of the Natural History Museum Vienna, and provided profound information about the geological context of their findings. We are grateful to Marie K. Hörnig (University of Greifswald) who acquired microscopic images for two of the herein presented specimens. We thank Matúš Hyžný (Commenius University Bratislava) for sharing his private literature database with one of the authors (MS). We thank Carolin Haug and J. Matthias Starck (both LMU Munich) for their long-standing support. In addition, Sibelco Europe MineralsPlus Winterswijk, and its plant manager Gerard ten Dolle are to be thanked for their invaluable support. Furthermore, the members of the Working Group Muschelkalk Winterswijk are to be thanked for their continued effort in searching for, studying and teaching about the fossils from the Winterswijk quarry. We thank Rodney M. Feld-mann (Kent State University) and one anonymous reviewer, for their helpful comments on the manuscript. The project was kindly funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG Ha 6300/3-2). Joachim Haug is kindly funded by the Volkswagen Foundation (Lichtenberg professorship).
Keywords
- Fossil
- Morphometry
- Polzberg
- Scutocoxifera
- Winterswijk
