A new species of rhenopyrgid edrioasteroid Rhenopyrgus piojoensis sp. nov. is described form the Silurian (Lower Ludlow) Los Espejos Formation in the Precordillera of Argentina. This species is the first reported edrioasteroid from South America. Rhenopyrgids are widely distributed in Ordovician through Devonian deposits of most continents. Numerous juvenile specimens show that the general bodyplan is organized early in ontogeny and that the pedenculate zone lengthens with age. Phylogenetic analysis shows that rhenopyrgids are more closely related to edrioasterid edrioasteroids such as edrioblastoids and cyathocystids than to pyrgocystid isorophids.
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1 December 2013
The First Report of South American Edrioasteroids and the Paleoecology and Ontogeny of Rhenopyrgid Echinoderms
Colin D. Sumrall,
Susana Heredia,
Cecilia M. Rodríguez,
Ana I. Mestre
Acta Palaeontologica Polonica
Vol. 58 • No. 4
December 2013
Vol. 58 • No. 4
December 2013
Echinodermata
Edrioasteroidea
ontogeny
Paleoecology
Rhenopyrgidae
Silurian
South America