AN EARLY ORDOVICIAN VERTEBRATE FROM THE FEZOUATA LAGERSTÄTTE OF MOROCCO

A diversity of exceptionally preserved invertebrates has been recovered from the Early Ordovician Fezouata formations of Morocco. These fossils offer an unprecedented window into the transition from Cambrian Burgess Shale-type faunas to the Paleozoic fauna, and have provided key insights into basal panarthropod, annelid, and molluskan interrelationships. Here we report the first evidence of a Fezouata vertebrate and consider its implications for early vertebrate evolution in a phylogenetic context. Together with conodonts and the unusual genus Anatolepis, which occur in the Cambrian, these remains are among the oldest known crown vertebrates.