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RESEARCH PRODUCT

Contribution of Morphometrics to the Systematics of the Ordovician GenusNeseuretus(Calymenidae, Trilobita) from the Armorican Massif, France

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description

The genusNeseuretusHicks, 1873 is the most abundant trilobite of the Ordovician siltite succession of the Andouillé and Traveusot Formations in the French Armorican massif. The systematics of some species ofNeseuretusis still unclear. Armorican and Iberian domains formed part of a distinctive paleobiogeographical province in the Ordovician and, while fiveNeseuretusspecies were defined in Iberia that follow each other through time, from the Middle to the Upper Ordovician, only oneNeseuretusspecies,N. tristani, has been identified in the Armorican massif so far. The discovery of new fossil deposits in the Ménez-Belair syncline has led to the identification and re-description of threeNeseuretustaxa:Neseuretus avusHamman, 1977 from the early-middle Darriwilian,Neseuretus tristani(Brongniart in Desmarest, 1817) from the late–middle Darriwilian to late Darriwilian andNeseuretus tardus(Hammann, 1983) from the Darriwilian–Sandbian boundary and early Sandbian. Morphological characters of the cephalon and pygidium were determined that can definitively distinguish the three identified taxa. These results stem from both traditional and geometric (outline and landmark-based) morphometric analyses. The three taxa follow each other through time and constitute a morphological sequence that contributes to improving the stratigraphy of the Middle and Upper Ordovician.