Collection: Didactic collection (systematic)

Systematic - Paleontology

Reign: Animalia
Phylum/Division: Arthropoda
Class: Merostomata
Order: Xiphosura
Scientific name: Mesolimulus walchi (Desmarest)

Description: The Limulus belongs to the phylum Artropoda, the same of crabs, scorpions, spiders and ticks. It lives in the marine environment up to 200 m water depth, along the East coast of North America and the shores of South East Asia. It is considered a living fossil, because it is a species with slow evolutionary rate which changed very little since its appearance in the Carboniferous. Mesolimulus walchi, from the upper Jurassic of Solnhofen (Bavaria, Germany), found fossilized at the end of its track, is one of the best known species.

Location

Continent/Subcontinent: Europe
State: Germany
Foreign places: Solnhofen - Bavaria

Università degli Studi di Padova, Museo di Geologia e Paleontologia

Item code: 26512

Bibliography

• Allasinaz A., 1991 - Paleontologia generale e sistematica degli Invertebrati, ECIG, Genova; Allasinaz A., 1999 - Invertebrati fossili, UTET, Torino.