Annelids from the Lower Devonian Hunsrück Slate (Lower Emsian, Rhenish Massif, Germany)

Abstract:  Four new genera and species of annelid, Hunsrueckochaeta hohensteini , Ewaldips feyi , Crocancistrius lutzi and Scopyrites magnus , are described from the Hunsrück Slate (Lower Emsian) of Germany, as well as new material of Bundenbachochaeta eschenbachensis   Bartels and Blind, 1995 . The specimens preserve details of the appendages and other aspects of the morphology as a result of pyritization. A phylogenetic analysis using the morphological data matrix of Rouse and Fauchald places four of the five genera basal to the Aciculata; the fifth Ewaldips falls within the Scolecida. The diversity of annelids represented in the Hunsrück Slate is similar to that in the other major Palaeozoic Konservat-Lagerstätten that yield them, including the Cambrian Burgess Shale and the Late Carboniferous Mazon Creek biota.