Lesson plan
Strabops
Strabops is a genus of strabopid, an extinct group of arthropods. Strabops is known from a single specimen from the Late Cambrian (Furongian age) of the Potosi Dolomite, Missouri, collected by a former professor, Arthur Thacher. It is classified in the family Strabopidae of the monotypic order Strabopida, a group closely related to the aglaspidids with uncertain affinities. The generic name is composed by the Ancient Greek words στραβός, meaning "squinting", and ὄψῐς, meaning "face" (and therefore, "squinting face"). The history of Strabops has been turbulent and confusing since its original description by Charles Emerson Beecher, who classified it as a eurypterid. Many authors do not agree with this and have classified Strabops and its allies as part of the Aglaspidida order, while others classify them in their own order. Although the latter is the taxonomic position currently accepted, other paleontologists prefer to simply omit the strabopids from their analyzes due to the poor preservation of their fossils. In addition, it has been suggested that the closely related Paleomerus represents a synonym of Strabops, which are uniquely differentiated by the size of the telson (the posteriormost division of the body) and the position of the eyes.
Article summary
Strabops is a genus of strabopid, an extinct group of arthropods. Strabops is known from a single specimen from the Late Cambrian (Furongian age) of the Potosi Dolomite, Missouri, collected by a former professor, Arthur Thacher. It is classified in the family Strabopidae of the monotypic order Strabopida, a group closely related to the aglaspidids with uncertain affinities. The generic name is composed by the Ancient Greek words στραβός, meaning "squinting", and ὄψῐς, meaning "face" (and therefore, "squinting face"). The history of Strabops has been turbulent and confusing since its original description by Charles Emerson Beecher, who classified it as a eurypterid. Many authors do not agree with this and have classified Strabops and its allies as part of the Aglaspidida order, while others classify them in their own order. Although the latter is the taxonomic position currently accepted, other paleontologists prefer to simply omit the strabopids from their analyzes due to the poor preservation of their fossils. In addition, it has been suggested that the closely related Paleomerus represents a synonym of Strabops, which are uniquely differentiated by the size of the telson (the posteriormost division of the body) and the position of the eyes.
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Discussion questions
- Summarise the article in your own words. Which single claim would you verify first, and why?
- Which claim in this article is most likely to be revised as the sources update? How would you check its current status?
- If two sources disagreed about one of these facts, what would you need in order to trust one over the other?
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Key claims and bibliography are generated from the same tracked claims and sources as the article page.