Lesson plan
Offacolus
Offacolus is an extinct genus of euchelicerate, a group of chelicerate arthropods. Its only species, O. kingi, has been found in deposits from the Silurian period (Homerian epoch) in the Wenlock Series Lagerstätte of Herefordshire, England. The genus is named after Offa, a king from the ancient kingdom of Mercia, and colus, a person who dwelled among (this time referring to) the Offa's Dyke. The species name honors Robert Joseph King, a British mineralogist who found the fossils of Offacolus. Similar to Dibasterium, Offacolus possess limb-like exopods (outer limb branches) on appendage II to V, a character suggest to be plesiomorphic (observable in the putative stem-chelicerate taxon Habeliida ) and lost within the prosomapod clade.
Article summary
Offacolus is an extinct genus of euchelicerate, a group of chelicerate arthropods. Its only species, O. kingi, has been found in deposits from the Silurian period (Homerian epoch) in the Wenlock Series Lagerstätte of Herefordshire, England. The genus is named after Offa, a king from the ancient kingdom of Mercia, and colus, a person who dwelled among (this time referring to) the Offa's Dyke. The species name honors Robert Joseph King, a British mineralogist who found the fossils of Offacolus. Similar to Dibasterium, Offacolus possess limb-like exopods (outer limb branches) on appendage II to V, a character suggest to be plesiomorphic (observable in the putative stem-chelicerate taxon Habeliida ) and lost within the prosomapod clade.
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Discussion questions
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