The long trail: A chimera-like fossil crustacean interpreted as decapoda, stomatopoda, amphipoda and finally isopoda

• Autor(a) principal: PAZINATO, PAULA G.
• Data de Publicação: 2021
• Outros Autores: HAUG, CAROLIN, ROHN, ROSEMARIE [UNESP], ADAMI-RODRIGUES, KAREN, GHILARDI, RENATO PIRANI [UNESP], LANGER, MAX CARDOSO, HAUG, JOACHIM T.
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Institucional da UNESP
• DOI: 10.13130/2039-4942/15699
• Texto Completo: http://dx.doi.org/10.13130/2039-4942/15699; http://hdl.handle.net/11449/233431
• topic: convergent evolution; Isopoda; morphometric analysis; Paraná Basin; Peracarida; Permian

The process of interpreting and evaluating a fossil is a difficult task. Isopoda is a species-rich group of peracarid eumalacostracans which represent quite a challenge when found as fossils, independent of whether we are working with fragmentary or more complete specimens. Here we describe a new fossil species of crustacean, Platuropodus odysseus n. gen. n. sp., from the Irati Formation, Permian of Paraná Basin, Brazil. After misinterpretations, the fossil taxon is recognised here as a representative of Isopoda. The new species presents characters found in Phreatoicidea, Asellota and Oniscidea in a unique combination for the fossil and extant record, such as two pairs of sub-chelate anterior trunk appendages, a short region after the anus and flat uropods. This chimera-like morphology and a morphometric analysis of the sub-chelae indicate convergent evolution in the early diversification of Isopoda. The morphological diversification present in the Palaeozoic and Mesozoic fossil record of Eumalacostraca indicate a push of the past effect in different ingroups of Peracarida.