Ainiktozoon

Ainiktozoon loganense
Temporal range: Ludlow
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Upside-down fossil specimen
Reconstruction
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: †Thylacocephala
Order: †Concavicarida
Genus: †Ainiktozoon
Scourfield, 1937
Species:
†A. loganense
Binomial name
†Ainiktozoon loganense
Scourfield, 1937

Ainiktozoon loganense ("Logan's enigmatic animal", from αἰνικτός (aíniktós, "riddling, enigmatical"), ζωόν living thing), is a fossil arthropod from the Silurian of Scotland.[1] It was found at the Birk Knowes site, part of the Patrick Burn Formation, near Lesmahagow.[2] Originally described as an early chordate,[3] recent studies suggest that it was in fact an arthropod, more precisely a thylacocephalan crustacean.[2]

  1. ^ Ritchie, A. (1985). "Ainiktozoon loganense Scourfield, a protochordate? from the Silurian of Scotland". Alcheringa. 9 (2): 117–142. doi:10.1080/03115518508618961.
  2. ^ a b van der Brugghen, Wim; Schram, F.R.; Martill, David M. (1997). "The fossil Ainiktozoon is an arthropod" (PDF). Nature. 385 (6617): 589–590. doi:10.1038/385589a0.
  3. ^ Scourfield, D.J. (1937). "An anomalous fossil organism, possibly a new type of chordate, from the Upper Silurian of Lesmahagow, Lanarkshire – Ainiktozoon loganense, gen. et sp. nov". Proceedings of the Royal Society B. 121 (825): 533–547. doi:10.1098/rspb.1937.0001.