Tanazios
Temporal range: Homerian
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Genus: Tanazios
Siveter et al, 2007
Species:
T. dokeron
Binomial name
Tanazios dokeron
Siveter et al, 2007

Tanazios is a genus of Silurian stem-mandibulate.

Description

Tanazios has a head with five pairs of appendages, these being the antennae, antennules, mandibles with gnathobasic coxae and two biramous limb pairs similar to those of the trunk, with a large projection in the hypostome’s centre. The trunk consists of 64 segments and has 60 appendage pairs, with a small telson on the end that holds the anus and a caudal ramus.[1]

Ecology

Tanazios has been proposed to be either a benthic or demersal scavenger.[1]

Etymology

Tanazios is a combination of the words “tanaos”, meaning “long”, “zoon”, meaning “animal” and “pelagios”, meaning “of the sea”. The species name dokeron is a combination of “dodeka” (“twelve”), “kerouchos” (“horned”) and “epikranon” (“helmet”).

Distribution

Tanazios is known from two reconstructed specimens from the Coalbrookdale Formation (as the concretions fossils are found in cannot be studied easily, fossils have to be reconstructed digitally via grinding then scanning them).

References

  1. ^ a b Siveter, Derek J (3 July 2007). "A new probable stem lineage crustacean with three-dimensionally preserved soft parts from the Herefordshire (Silurian) Lagerstätte, UK". The Royal Society Publishing. doi:10.1098/rspb.2007.0429.