Techniques of Exuviation in Liaodong Species of Early Cambrian Trilobite Redlichia (Pteroredlichia) murakamii Resser et Endo
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Abstract:
An uncommon form of exuviation, involving inversion of cranidium, is well preserved in a trilobite specimen of Early Cambrian Redlichia murakamii Resser et Endo collected from the Benxi region in eastern Liaoning Province, North China This specimen provides an important insight into the techniques of the exuviation of the Cambrian Redlichia. In this moulting specimen, free cheeks are not preserved, whereas thoracic segments are associated with pygidium, but displaced from the cranidium, which was inverted beneath thoracic segments without significant lateral displacement, indicating an autochthonous origin. The mechanism of the exuviation is interpreted as follow: the facial suture functioned efficiently and thus split first, followed by an upward thrust and the enrolment of the cephalon, which resulted in the inversion of the cranidium as well as the separation between thoracic segments, free cheeks and cranidium, and finally the postecdysial trilobite struggled to get rid of proecdysial exuvia. Such a form of exuviation for Early Cambrian Redlichia in North China is different from those of the Cambrian Redlichia in Australia reported by McNamara (1986).
