Fossil age data and molecular sequences are increasingly combined to establish a
timescale for the Tree of Life. Arthropods, as the most species-rich and morphologically …

Abstract Waterfleas (Crustacea: Branchiopoda: Cladocera) are among the most successful
invertebrates in current freshwater ecosystems, occupying a wide range of niches …

Exceptionally preserved fossils provide major insights into the evolutionary history of life.
Microbial activity is thought to play a pivotal role in both the decay of organisms and the …

Ecdysis, the process of moulting an exoskeleton, is one of the key characters uniting
arthropods, nematodes and a number of smaller phyla into Ecdysozoa. The arthropod fossil …

Branchiopod crustaceans are represented by fairy, tadpole, and clam shrimps (Anostraca,
Notostraca, Laevicaudata, Spinicaudata), which typically inhabit temporary freshwater …

Apportioning trace fossils to producers is significant for palaeoecological and
palaeoenvironmental studies. A tracemaker is usually attributed through the comparison of …

Clam shrimp (the paraphyletic assemblage of spinicaudatans, laevicaudatans, cyclestherids
and the extinct leaiins) are small, bivalved branchiopod crustaceans that specialize in …

Pleistocene water bodies have been studied using the paleolimnological approach, which
traces environmental changes using particular subfossils as ecological proxies, rather than …

Crustaceans of the order Notostraca (Branchiopoda) are distributed worldwide and are
known for the remarkable morphological stasis between their extant and Permian fossil …

The origin of tetrapods is one of the key events in vertebrate history. The oldest tetrapod
body fossils are Late Devonian (Frasnian–Famennian) in age, most of them consisting of …