Moulting patterns in the Devonian trilobites of the Paraná Basin

• Grant number: 19/14463-9
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: August 01, 2019
• End date: December 31, 2020
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Zoology - Paleozoology
• Principal Investigator: Renato Pirani Ghilardi
• Grantee: Ariane Daniele Piccoli
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Ciências (FC). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Bauru. Bauru , SP, Brazil

Abstract

The present project deals with the study of moulting patterns in trilobites of the Middle Devonian (Emsian-Eifelian) of the Paraná Basin, Brazil. In general, trilobites have their moulting accomplished by the breaking the libran of the cephalus. However, the phacopids of the Paraná Basin present a Salterian ecdise pattern consisting of the separation of the whole cephalum from the torax. Such pattern of ecdysis causes the preservation of the moult organisms to be a misunderstanding with tafonomic patterns of the skeletal remains in the final record. This project aims to fill not only the detailed description of this pattern in specimens in different scientific collections, but also goes to understand the knowledge gap regarding the differentiation of preservation patterns resulting from ecdysis or from tafonomic preservation.