Sclerites and possible mouthparts of Wiwaxia from the temperate palaeolatitudes of Colombia,South America |
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| Authors: | Martin R. Smith Gareth M. G. Hughes María C. Vargas Felipe de La Parra |
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| Affiliation: | 1. Department of Earth Sciences, Downing Site, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UKThese authors contributed equally to this study.;2. PetroStrat Ltd., Conwy, UKThese authors contributed equally to this study.;3. Biostratigraphy Team, Instituto Colombiano del Petróleo‐Ecopetrol, Bucaramanga, Colombia |
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| Abstract: | The problematic mollusc Wiwaxia is perhaps the most widely distributed non‐mineralized Cambrian metazoan, but has only been reported from palaeotropical latitudes. Here, we describe mid‐Cambrian (Drumian, c. 504 Ma) sclerites and possible tooth arrays from the northern Llanos Basin, Colombia, recovered from drilled ditch cuttings by palynological processing – demonstrating that pristine material and low‐manipulation processing are not essential to the recovery of Small Carbonaceous Fossils. This, the first report of Wiwaxia from South America, substantially expands Wiwaxia's geographic range into the high palaeolatitudes. |
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| Keywords: | biogeography Cambrian palynological processing Small Carbonaceous Fossils South America
Wiwaxia
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