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Science 2 November 1990:
Vol. 250. no. 4981, pp. 658 - 661
DOI: 10.1126/science.250.4981.658
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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:
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 »
Charcoal in the Silurian as evidence for the earliest wildfire.
(2004)
Geology 32, 381-383
First steps on land: Arthropod trackways in Cambrian-Ordovician eolian sandstone, southeastern Ontario, Canada.
(2002)
Geology 30, 391-394
A Gondwanan Coastal Arthropod Ichnofauna from the Muth Formation (Lower Devonian, Northern India): Paleoenvironment and Tracemaker Behavior.
(2001)
Palaios 16, 126-147


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