Schinderhannes bartelsi
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Schinderhannes bartelsi Temporal range: Early Devonian 408–400 Ma |
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| The one known specimen of Schinderhannes. Credit: Steinmann Institute/University of Bonn | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Class: | †Dinocaridida |
| Order: | †Radiodonta |
| Family: | †Hurdiidae |
| Genus: | †Schinderhannes |
| Species: | †S. bartelsi |
| Binomial name | |
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Schinderhannes bartelsi Kühl, Briggs & Rust, 2009 |
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Schinderhannes bartelsi is an anomalocarid known from one specimen from the lower Devonian Hunsrück Slates. Its discovery was astonishing because previously, anomalocaridids were known only from exceptionally well-preserved fossil beds (Lagerstätten) from the Cambrian, 100 million years earlier.
Anomalocaridids, such as Anomalocaris, were organisms thought to be distantly related to the arthropods. These creatures looked quite unlike any organism living today—they had segmented exoskeletons, with lateral lobes used for swimming, typically large compound eyes, often set on stalks, and most strikingly, a pair of large, claw-like great appendages that resembled headless shrimp. These appendages are thought to have passed food to the animal's mouth, which resembled a ring of sliced pineapple.
The single specimen was discovered in the Eschenbach-Bocksberg Quarry in Bundenbach, and is named after the outlaw Schinderhannes who frequented the area. Its specific epithet bartelsi honours Christoph Bartels, a Hunsrück Slate expert. The specimen is now housed in the Naturhistorisches Museum, Mainz.
Schinderhannes is about 10 centimetres (3.9 in) long; like other anomalocaridids, it bears a pair of great appendages (very similar to those of Hurdia), a radial Peytoia 'pineapple-ring' mouth, and large, stalked, compound eyes. It has 12 body segments; large flap-like structures used for swimming protrude from the 11th segment, and from just behind the head.
The preserved contents of its digestive tract are typical of those of other predators', and this lifestyle is supported by the raptor-like nature of the spiny great appendages and the size of the eyes. The organism was clearly a competent swimmer, propelling itself with the 'flippers' attached to its head, and using its wing-like lobes on the 11th segment to steer. These lobes presumably derived from the lateral lobes of Cambrian anomalocaridids, ancestors that used lobes along their sides to swim, and lacked the specializations of Schinderhannes.
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