Note to users. If you're seeing this message, it means that your browser cannot find this page's style/presentation instructions -- or possibly that you are using a browser that does not support current Web standards. Find out more about why this message is appearing, and what you can do to make your experience of our site the best it can be.

Site Tools

  • AAAS
  • Subscribe
  • Feedback

Site Search

Search Advanced

Science 2 November 1990:
Vol. 250. no. 4981, pp. 658 - 661
DOI: 10.1126/science.250.4981.658
Prev | Table of Contents | Next

Articles

Land Animals in the Silurian: Arachnids and Myriapods from Shropshire, England

Andrew J. Jeram 1, Paul A. Selden 2, and Dianne Edwards 3

1 Department of Geology, University of Manchester, Manchester, M13 9PL, U.K.
2 Department of Extra-Mural Studies, University of Manchester, Manchester M13 9PL, U.K.
3 Departnent of Geology, University of Wales College of Cardiff, P. O. Box 914, Cardiff CF1 3YE, U.K.

A new assemblage of arthropod cuticles from Upper Silurian rocks in Shropshire, England, includes at least two centipedes and a trigonotarbid arachnid. This unequivocal terrestrial fauna from the Silurian constitutes the earliest direct record of land animals. The presence of predatory arthropods suggests that complex terrestrial ecosystems were in place by the late Silurian (414 x 106 years before present) and that the animal invasion of the land occurred earlier than was previously thought.


THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
Neoichnology of Burrowing Millipedes: Linking Modern Burrow Morphology, Organism Behavior, and Sediment Properties to Interpret Continental Ichnofossils.
D. I. Hembree (2009)
Palaios 24, 425-439
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
JULIFORMIAN MILLIPEDES FROM THE LOWER DEVONIAN OF EURAMERICA: IMPLICATIONS FOR THE TIMING OF MILLIPEDE CLADOGENESIS IN THE PALEOZOIC.
H. M. WILSON (2006)
Journal of Paleontology 80, 638-649
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Evolution and importance of wetlands in earth history.
S. F. Greb, W. A. DiMichele, and R. A. Gastaldo (2006)
Geological Society of America Special Papers 399, 1-40
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Charcoal in the Silurian as evidence for the earliest wildfire.
I.J. Glasspool, D. Edwards, and L. Axe (2004)
Geology 32, 381-383
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
First steps on land: Arthropod trackways in Cambrian-Ordovician eolian sandstone, southeastern Ontario, Canada.
R. B. MacNaughton, J. M. Cole, R. W. Dalrymple, S. J. Braddy, D. E.G. Briggs, and T. D. Lukie (2002)
Geology 30, 391-394
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
A Gondwanan Coastal Arthropod Ichnofauna from the Muth Formation (Lower Devonian, Northern India): Paleoenvironment and Tracemaker Behavior.
(2001)
Palaios 16, 126-147


To Advertise     Find Products

Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)