Name: Beckwithia
typa Aglaspid
Phylum:
Arthropoda; Aglaspida > Incertae
sedis, formerly Subphylum:
Chelicerata; Class: Merostomata; Order: Aglaspida
Geological
Time: Upper Middle Cambrian, Cenomanian Stage
Size: 70
to 100 mm
Fossil
Locality: House Range, Weeks Formation, Millard County, Utah
Three
specimens of the same species are shown below. These are arthropods
known as Aglaspids (unranked as Aglaspida or Aglaspidida). Aglaspids
resemble the modern-day horseshoe crabs, and contain as the most
famous member the Beckwithia typa shown here, a monsterous creature
reaching up to some 20 cm in overall length that is thought to have
been a predator of trilobites.
Beckwithia was named after Frank Beckwith, editor and publisher
of the Millard County Chronicle of Delta, Utah in the early to middle
1900s, a man with a passion for trilobites. Aglaspids are thought
by some scientists to have made the trackways named Protichnites.
Hesselbo S.P. (1989) The Aglaspidid Arthropod Beckwithia
from the Cambrian of Utah and Wisconsin, Journal of Paleontology,
63(5) 636-642 |
|
