Phylogeny, palaeobiology, diversity, and evolutionary significance of Euarthropoda (excluding Trilobita) from the Lower Devonian Hunsrück Slate (Germany)

下泥盆统Hunsrück板岩（德国）以其独特的动物群和植物群以及高质量的黄铁矿化石保存而闻名。特别是节肢动物是高度多样性和显着的保护。其中一些系统亲缘关系不明，系统发育关系不清。这些形态上非常古老的类群，如Vachonisia rogeri，Mimetaster hexagonalis和Devonohexapodus bocksbergensis，在许多新的可用材料，节肢动物发生和进化的新理论，对其埋藏学和古生物学的解释以及古环境的重建方面研究甚少。这同样适用于新材料的分类单位Pygnogonida和其他chelicerates，以及为显着的新材料的甲壳动物分类单位Phyllocarida。这些杰出的新材料与前面提到的方面有关，在这里提出的项目中占据中心地位。此外，Hunsrück板岩的节肢动物表明，茎组节肢动物并不总是“原始”的常识。相反，它们表明早期和可能的多辐射，高多样性，并在古生代节肢动物的高度专业化。为了说明这些方面，并从寒武纪以及其他时间范围内的社区Hunsrück节肢动物的多样性和差异进行比较是这里提出的项目的一个重要目标。

The Lower Devonian Hunsrück Slate (Germany) is known for its unique fauna and flora and the high quality of the preservation of pyritiesed fossils. Especially the arthropods are highly diverse and remarkable for their preservation. Some of them are of unknown systematic affinity and ambiguous phylogenetic relationship. These morphologically very archaic taxa, like Vachonisia rogeri, Mimetaster hexagonalis, and Devonohexapodus bocksbergensis, are poorly studied with respect to much newly available material, the new theories of arthropod phylogeny and evolution, the interpretation of their taphonomy and palaeobioloy, and the reconstruction of the palaeoenvironment. The same applies to new material of the taxon Pygnogonida and other chelicerates as well as for remarkable new material of crustaceans of the taxon Phyllocarida. These outstanding new material linked with the aspects mentioned before take centre stage in the project proposed here. Additionally, the arthropods of the Hunsrück Slate show that stem group arthropods are not always “primitive” in a common sense. On the contrary, they indicate early and presumably multiple radiations, a high diversity, and a high degree of specialization of arthropods in the Palaeozoic. To illustrate these aspects and to compare the diversity and disparity of the Hunsrück arthropods with communities from the Cambrian as well as other time horizons is an important goal of the project proposed here.