Oldest record of the fossil syncarid (Crustacea) Palaeocaris from the Carboniferous Manning Canyon Formation, Utah, USA

Abstract

New records documented here demonstrate that Palaeocaris Meek and Worthen, 1865 was the most cosmopolitan and longest ranging (earliest Bashkirian to Gzhelian) fossil syncarid genus. It contains three species that are primarily known from occurrences in Euramerican Carboniferous Lagerstätten. Two of these species, P. typus Meek and Worthen, 1865 and P. secretanae Schram, 1984, have previously been reported from North America. We add a third species to the North American fossil record, Palaeocaris retractata Calman, 1932, from the Manning Canyon Formation (Bashkirian) of north-central Utah, USA. This is the oldest geological record of Palaeocaris and extends the temporal range of P. retractata back from its appearance in the transitional Bashkirian to Moscovian Bickershaw Lagerstätte of England by at least 4 million years. The Manning Canyon Formation occurrence expands the paleogeographic distribution of P. retractata from western Europe (England) to the northeastern edge of the Great Basin, USA.