Juan Bautista Chirivella Martorell

The first record of Dinesus (Trilobita, Dinesidae) in the Cambrian of the Mediterranean region

An important problem facing inter-regional correlation in the Cambrian is the scarcity of shared taxa between different palaeogeographic domains. Currently, species of the Corynexochida are proposed as tools to define the base of Cambrian Series 3. However, few Mediterranean Corynexochida species are known. A specimen of Dinesus truyolsi comb. nov. from the middle Cambrian of Spain represents the first record of this genus in the Acadobaltic province. Erbia and Tingyuania are accepted as junior subjective synonyms of Dinesus, and we now recognize 22 species within this genus. Dinesus has been found previously in lower to middle Cambrian strata of Australia, Russia, Kazakhstan, North America and China providing the potential for improved global correlation for this interval.

A blind trilobite with Baltic affinities from Cambrian Series 3 of the Iberian Chains, Spain, and its stratigraphical and palaeobiogeographical significance

Three cranidia of a conocoryphid trilobite are described from the lower Caesaraugustan Regional Stage (upper part of provisional Cambrian Stage 5 within Cambrian Series 3) in the Iberian Chains, Spain. The material is from the upper part of the Mansilla Formation and the base of the overlying Murero Formation. It closely resembles Bailiella tenuicincta (Linnarsson, 1879), which has previously been described from the Ptychagnostus gibbus (Cambrian Stage 5) and lower P. atavus zones (lower Drumian Stage) of Baltica (Sweden and Bornholm), and from the P. atavus Zone of West Avalonia (Newfoundland). The record of B. cf. tenuicincta from the Mediterranean margin of West Gondwana provides additional evidence for considering the Acado-Baltic region a discrete biogeographical province, at least during the Cambrian 5 and Drumian ages.