Lustri, Lorenzo;
Laibl, Lukas;
Collantes, Luis;
Bruthansova, Jana;
Nohejlova, Martina;
Liu, Yu;
Pates, Stephen;
(2026)
A morphometric approach to the taxonomic dilemma of Zonozoe drabowiensis Barrande, 1872 and Zonoscutum solum Chlupáč, 1999 (Upper Ordovician, Czech Republic).
Swiss Journal of Palaeontology
10.3897/sjp.145.179154.
(In press).
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Abstract
Zonozoe drabowiensis Barrande, 1872 and Zonoscutum solum Chlupáč, 1999 are rare and incompletely preserved arthropods from the Upper Ordovician of the Czech Republic. Their classification has been a subject of debate for over a century due to the limited number of specimens, lack of knowledge related to post-cephalic morphology and the absence of clear diagnostic features. They were previously considered as members of Aglaspidida, an extinct group of arthropods from the Cambrian and Ordovician, within Vicissicaudata, a branch of the larger arthropod clade Artiopoda. Herein, we analysed the cephalic outlines of Zonozoe and Zonoscutum to determine whether their shapes align more closely with vissicaudatans than with other early Palaeozoic arthropods, offering a new morphological perspective on their systematics. We assembled a data set of cephalic outlines each representing one of thirty-three early Palaeozoic species, including Zonozoe, Zonoscutum, nine euchelicerates, six aglaspidids, three cheloniellids, and a selection of other artiopodans. We quantified their shape using elliptical Fourier analysis. Principal component analysis (PCA) and linear discriminant analysis (LDA) place Zonozoe within the vicissicaudatan morphospace, and Zonoscutum in their proximity, clearly distinguishing them from euchelicerates. These data add support to the most conservative classification of Zonozoe and Zonoscutum within Artiopoda, while strengthening the case for a more specific affinity with Vicissicaudata, helping to resolve a 150-year-old taxonomic uncertainty. More broadly, this study demonstrates the value of outline-based morphometrics in aiding systematic hypotheses when discrete characters are unavailable or scarce, offering a reproducible tool for re-evaluating other problematic fossils.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | A morphometric approach to the taxonomic dilemma of Zonozoe drabowiensis Barrande, 1872 and Zonoscutum solum Chlupáč, 1999 (Upper Ordovician, Czech Republic) |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.3897/sjp.145.179154 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. |
| Keywords: | Artiopoda, elliptical Fourier analysis, Vicissicaudata, Zonoscutum solum, Zonozoe drabowiensis |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Maths and Physical Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Maths and Physical Sciences > Dept of Earth Sciences |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10219257 |
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