This is Mazon Monday post #47. What's your favorite Mazon Creek fossil? Tell us at email:[email protected].
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For this week, we have a very rare Mazon Creek animal. The estimate of occurrence for centipedes was about 3 in 287,000 concretions in the paper "Relative Abundance of Different Mazon Creek Organisms" by Gordon C. Baird and John L. Anderson, which was published in the "Richardson's Guide to The Fossil Fauna of Mazon Creek". For comparison, they found 13 spiders, 66 fish, and 107 horseshoe crabs in their survey.
We are considering Latzelia primordialis, which has been called the only true centipede in the Mazon Creek biota. Latzelia looked similar to modern day house centipedes. Described in 1890 by Samuel Hubbard Scudder, It is considered the most common centipede in Mazon Creek.
From Wikipedia, we have:
Latzelia is an extinct genus of scutigeromorph centipedes, and the type and only genus of the family Latzeliidae.[1] It existed during the Carboniferous in what is now Illinois (found in Mazon Creek fossil beds).[1] It was described by Samuel Hubbard Scudder in 1890, and the type species, and only known species, is Latzelia primordialis.[2] The genus name honors Austrian zoologist Robert Latzel.[3]
This centipede genus should not be confused with two invalid names applied to millipede genera: the first proposed Bollman in 1893 for a glomeridan species now in the genus Glomeridella, and the second by Verhoeff in 1895 for a genus of chordeumatidans now known as Verhoeffia.[3]
| Latzelia primordialis | |
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| Illustration by Jon R. Smith | |
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†Latzeliidae
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| Genus: |
†Latzelia
Scudder, 1890
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| Type species | |
| Latzelia primordialis Scudder, 1890
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Latzelia primordialis appeared in a Creature Corner article in April 1985.
Latzelia primordialis (centipede)
Myriapods (millipedes and centipedes) appear early in the fossil record. Millipedes were discovered in Devonian strata. The Centipedes are first found.in the Pennsylvanian of Mazon Creek Mazon Creek centipedes are remarkably modern in structure and mechanically complicated. Being so wel advanced, one can surmise that they left their aquatic environment in the same time period as the millipedes. It is thought Myriapoda were the first terrestrial inhabitants, the precursors of the great insect invasion of land.
A half dozen or so speciesof centipede-like Myriapcds have been found in the Mazon Creek area! but onjly one, Latzelia primordialis, is considered a true centipede. Latzelia had a rather heavy body (maximum length found was 45 mm), a small head, 15 pairs of legs and a whip-like antennae. (Question -Were the Pennsylvanian centipedes "modern or are present day centipedes ancient ?)
Andrew A. Hay
Page 45 of the ESCONI Keys to Mazon Creek Animals has L. primordialis.
This centipede is considered to be the on1y true centipede found in the Mazon Creek biota. Discovered in a concretion found in the stream bed, or bank of the Mazon Creek almost 100 years ago, it was named after an Austrian entomologist. Latzelia had a rather heavy body, small head, and whip-like antennae. Its plan has been stated to be modern." The present day house centipedes, Scutigera and c., have virtually the same structure as does this Paleozoic centipede.
Chapter 13 of the Richardson's Guide is called "Myriapods and Arthropleurids" by Joseph T. Hannibal. Latzelia primordialis makes an appearance here.
Latzelia primordialis Scudder
Figure 13.14
This species had seven smooth, gently arched tergites; a moderately sized head; and very long legs. It has been redescribed by Mundel (1979, pp. 366-373), who has shown this form to be quite similar in general aspect to, but larger and more robust than, Scutigera coleoptrata. Like its modern relatives it was a swift-moving predator. Its generic name is in honor of Robert Latzel, a nineteenth-century Viennese myriapod worker. The original specimen was presumably collected along Mazon Creek. The collection at the Field Museum of Natural History examined by Mundel (1979) contained specimens from Pit 11, from the Essex fauna. This is the most common centipede found at Mazoon Creek (Mundel, 1981).
And, we wouldn't want to leave out the "The Mazon Creek Fossil Fauna" as it also has a page on Latzelia primordialis.
Latzelia primordialis Scudder, 1882
The earliest known examples of centipedes in the fossil record are found in the Mazon Creek Biota. Discovered in a concretion from the bed of the Mazon River, Scudder first described this animal in 1882, naming it after an Austrian entomologist. The Latzelia primordialis centipede has a rather heavy body, small head, 15 pairs of legs, and whip-like antennae. It bears the fewest segments of the three known Mazon Creek centipedes.
Centipedes are a conservative group, and L. primordialis was as likely an agile hunter of insects as its modern counterparts. Scutigera coleoptrata, the house centipede of today, has virtually the same structure as this Paleozoic centipede, and shares a similar feature that can be used as a field mark for Latzelia. The typical postmortem pose for both is with the legs folded under the body. Most fossil examples of Latzelia have only the first leg segment preserved with possibly only traces of the rest.
This photo is one of the specimens that were drawn in "Creature Corner" by Don Auler. It is currently owned by ESCONI member Rich Holm and was purchased at the estate sale of Kathy Dedina.
