A mixed ophiuroid—stylophoran assemblage (Echinodermata) from the Middle Ordovician (Llandeilian) of western Brittany, France

Abstract

AbstractIn the abandoned slate quarry of Guernanic, Gourin (Morbihan, France), a single horizon (Upper Member of the Schistes de Postolonnec Formation) has yielded an exquisitely preserved Llandeilian (Middle Ordovician) echinoderm assemblage composed of the ophiuroid Taeniaster armoricanus sp. nov. and the mitrate Mitrocystella incipiens. These two groups of echinoderms represent the first fossils formally described from the Middle Ordovician of the Gourin area. The brittlestar T. armoricanus sp. nov. is the third and oldest ophiuroid reported so far in the Palaeozoic of the Armorican Massif. The mitrate Mitrocystella is also described for the first time from western Brittany. Taphonomic features of this ophiuroid-stylophoran aggregation suggest that it probably corresponds to the rapid burial of a life assemblage in an otherwise quiet and moderately deep setting (shelf) below, but close to, storm wave base. This echinoderm association represents the oldest evidence for a gregarious mode of life for ophiuroids, as well as the oldest indisputable example of a mixed ophiuroid-stylophoran meadow.