ON THE TAXONOMIC PROBLEM OF THE MUFUSHANIA TRILOBITES

In accordance with the cranidia structures, the method of “Q-mode cluster analysis” used in the present paper for a taxonomic study of 18 species of the genus Mufushania, that was established or adopted by Lin Tian-rui (1965), Li Shan-ji (1978)，Zhang Wen-tang et al. (1980), Sun Zhen-hua (1982), Zhou Zhi-qiang et al. (1982), Guo Hong-jun et al. (1996), Yuan Jin-liang and Li Yue (1999), Peng Shan-chi et al. (2001), Yuan Jin-liang et al. (2002). The statistical measurement of similarity is incremental sum of error squares (ΔE). The use of the variability by the author is the eight quantitative ratio values (see table 1). The resemblance relation matrices of all specimens are formed through calculation of the increments of sum of error squares between those specimens (see table 2). These data show that M. shalangensis Zhang and Zhou in Zhang et al. 1980(5), M. angustilimbata Zhang and Zhou in Zhang et al.,1980 (7) and M. kailiensis (Yuan in Yuan et al., 2002) (13) species should not be a member of the Mufushania, not belonging to species of Mufushania. Finally, through the application of combined cluster analysis with traditional qualitative analysis in the study of fifteen species of Mufushania trilobites in this paper, of which M. changi Lin, 1965 (2) is regarded as a junior synonym of the type species (1) and M. zhanjiaxiangensis Sun, 1982 (10) is regarded as a junior synonym of M. ezhongensis Sun, 1982 (9), too, the other thirteen species of Mufushania in the opinion on lumping and transferring the studied species is proposed (see table 3).

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