title: A xandarellid artiopodan from Morocco - a middle Cambrian link between soft-bodied euarthropod communities in North Africa and South China.
abstract: Xandarellida is a well-defined clade of Lower Palaeozoic non-biomineralized artiopodans that is exclusively known from the early Cambrian (Stage 3) Chengjiang biota of South China. Here we describe a new member of this group, Xandarella mauretanica sp. nov., from the middle Cambrian (Stage 5) Tatelt Formation of Morocco, making this the first non-trilobite Cambrian euarthropod known from North Africa. X. mauretanica sp. nov. represents the youngest occurrence of Xandarellida - extending its stratigraphic range by approximately 10 million years - and expands the palaeobiogeographic distribution of the group to the high southern palaeolatitudes of West Gondwana. The new species provides insights into the lightly sclerotized ventral anatomy of Xandarellida, and offers stratigraphically older evidence for a palaeobiogeographic connection between Burgess Shale-type euarthropod communities in North Africa and South China, relative to the (Tremadocian) Fezouata biota.
authors.affiliation: Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, Downing Street, Cambridge CB2 3EJ, UK.
authors.forename: Javier
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Ortega-Hernández
authors.affiliation: Département Sciences de la Terre, Faculté des Sciences et Techniques-Guéliz, Université Cadi Ayyad, Avenue Abdelkrim el Khattabi BP 549, 40000 Marrakech, Morocco.
authors.forename: Abdelfattah
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Azizi
authors.affiliation: Department of Geology, University of Leicester, University Road, Leicester LE1 7RH, UK.|British Geological Survey, Keyworth, NG12 5GG, UK.
authors.forename: Thomas W
authors.initials: TW
authors.lastname: Hearing
authors.affiliation: Department of Geology, University of Leicester, University Road, Leicester LE1 7RH, UK.
authors.forename: Thomas H P
authors.initials: TH
authors.lastname: Harvey
authors.affiliation: Department of Earth Sciences, The Natural History Museum, Cromwell Road, London SW7 5BD, UK.
authors.forename: Gregory D
authors.initials: GD
authors.lastname: Edgecombe
authors.affiliation: Département Sciences de la Terre, Faculté des Sciences et Techniques-Guéliz, Université Cadi Ayyad, Avenue Abdelkrim el Khattabi BP 549, 40000 Marrakech, Morocco.
authors.forename: Ahmid
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Hafid
authors.affiliation: Département Sciences de la Terre, Faculté des Sciences et Techniques-Guéliz, Université Cadi Ayyad, Avenue Abdelkrim el Khattabi BP 549, 40000 Marrakech, Morocco.
authors.forename: Khadija
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: El Hariri
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001181:Arthropods / Q000033:anatomy & histology* / Q000145:classification* / Q000502:physiology; D005075:Biological Evolution; D002681:China; D053476:Extinction, Biological; D005580:Fossils / Q000033:anatomy & histology*; D019015:Geologic Sediments; D009018:Morocco; D010163:Paleontology / Q000379:methods; D010802:Phylogeny; D058974:Phylogeography