Sottyxerxes
| Sottyxerxes Temporal range: Carboniferous,
| |
|---|---|
| Artistic reconstruction of Sottyxerxes | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Arthropoda |
| Subclass: | †Euthycarcinoidea |
| Genus: | †Sottyxerxes Schram et al., 1982 |
| Species: | †S. multiplex
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| Binomial name | |
| †Sottyxerxes multiplex Schram et al., 1982
| |
Sottyxerxes is an extinct genus of euthycarcinoid arthropod from the Carboniferous (Stephanian stage) Montceau-les-Mines lagerstätte in France.[1]
Discovery and naming
The genus was originally described and named by Schram et al. in 1982 with two species: S. multiplex from the Stephanian Montceau-les-Mines lagerstätte and S. pieckoae from the Westphalian Mazon Creek.[1] However, S. pieckoae was later placed in the new genus Pieckoxerxes by Starobogatov in 1988.[2]
S. multiplex was described on the basis of 11 specimens. In 2008, Racheboeuf et al. redescribed the species with 49 new specimens, including some three-dimensionally preserved fossils.[3]
The genus name honours the Sotty family, prominent collectors of Montceau-les-Mines fossils. The specific name multiplex comes from Latin and means "manifold" or "multiple", referring to the numerous diplosegments.[1]
Description
The total body length reaches about 35 mm (1.4 in). The head is rounded, 2.4 mm (0.094 in) long, and is composed of two sclerites: the anterior cephalic tergite and the larger posterior cephalic tergite. The ventral face of the cephalic region carries two unpaired convex plates, which might represent the labrum identified in other euthycarcinoids. There are 14 preabdominal tergites and six postabdominal somites. The body is terminated by a pointed telson.[3]
Ecology
The Montceau-les-Mines lagerstätte is widely accepted to have been a freshwater intermontane environment.[4] Sottyxerxes has no setae, subtriangular podomeres, and shows no swimming adaptations, which suggests that it simply walked along the bottom. It lived alongside the other euthycarcinoid Schramixerxes gerem.[3]
References
- ^ a b c Schram, Frederick R.; Rolfe, W. D. Ian (1982). "New Euthycarcinoid Arthropods from the Upper Pennsylvanian of France and Illinois". Journal of Paleontology. 56 (6): 1434–1450. ISSN 0022-3360.
- ^ Starobogatov, Y. I. (1988). "On the system of euthycarcinids (Arthropoda, Trilobitoides)". Bulletin of Geology. 3: 65–74.
- ^ a b c Racheboeuf, Patrick R.; Vannier, Jean; Schram, Frederick R.; Chabard, Dominique; Sotty, Daniel (March 2008). "The euthycarcinoid arthropods from Montceau-les-Mines, France: functional morphology and affinities". Earth and Environmental Science Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. 99 (1): 11–25. doi:10.1017/S1755691008006130. ISSN 1755-6929.
- ^ Knecht, Richard J.; McCall, Christian R. A.; Tsai, Cheng-Chia; Rabideau Childers, Richard A.; Yu, Nanfang (23 July 2025). "Palaeocampa anthrax, an armored freshwater lobopodian with chemical defenses from the Carboniferous". Communications Biology. 8 (1) 1080. doi:10.1038/s42003-025-08483-0. PMC 12287526. PMID 40702124.