TAXONOMY OF EURYPTERIDA (CHELICERATA) FROM THE DEVONIAN OF THE PARANÁ BASIN

• Grant number: 23/00952-3
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: May 01, 2023
• End date: December 31, 2023
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Zoology - Paleozoology
• Principal Investigator: Renato Pirani Ghilardi
• Grantee: Mateus Bocate Franco
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Ciências (FC). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Bauru. Bauru , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Eurypterids are extinct aquatic arthropods that present a basic body organization in accordance with the morphology of Chelicerata. They have a ventral plate on the prosoma (metastoma), a median genital appendage and twelve abdominal segments. These animals had different eating habits and were able to occupy benthic, nektonic and nektobenthic regions. They are typical organisms of salt, brackish and fresh water environments, occurring in the fossil record from the Ordovician to the Permian, being in greater quantity in the northern hemisphere. The description of this taxon for the Devonian of the Paraná Basin is unprecedented, making the main objective of this work to be the construction of a morphological description followed by the systematics of the specimen found. These structural analyzes will be carried out using a microtomography, an equipment capable of generating computerized images for a better understanding of the paleobiology of this organism and consequently enabling new interpretations of paleoecology and paleoenvironments of this period in the basin.