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Science 1 October 1993:
Vol. 262. no. 5130, pp. 93 - 94
DOI: 10.1126/science.262.5130.93
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Articles

Early Cambrian Ostracode Larvae with a Univalved Carapace

Xi-guang Zhang 1 and Brian R. Pratt 1

1 Department of Geological Sciences, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan S7N 0W0, Canada

Phosphatized univalves, recovered from the Lower Cambrian (sim530 million years old) Qiongzhusi Formation in southern China, are recognized as early instars belonging to bradoriid ostracodes whose later instars are bivalved. The univalved form is the primitive larval character for shell-secreting crustaceans, although most post-Cambrian ostracodes bypassed this developmental phase. The univalved-bivalved transition during early on-togeny represents an important evolutionary event in ostracodes, with implications for crustacean classification, and implies that the ostracode ancestor achieved this bivalved capacity before the appearance of mineralized skeletons during the "Cambrian explosion."

Submitted on June 7, 1993
Accepted on August 5, 1993


THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
A NEW EARLY CAMBRIAN BRADORIID (ARTHROPODA) FROM EAST ANTARCTICA.
(2003)
Journal of Paleontology 77, 691-697


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