Abstract

Drepanopterus pentlandicus Laurie, 1892 is redescribed from the original type material along with previously unfigured specimens. A cleft metastoma is confirmed as a characteristic of the genus along with the armature of the second and third prosomal appendages being modified into flattened blades, while the species is shown to possess an enlarged second tergite and prosomal posterolateral lobes. Different ontogenetic stages of D. pentlandicus are described and it is revealed that these latter characters develop only later in ontogeny, suggesting that described specimens of Drepanopterus abonensis Simpson, 1951 may represent juveniles. Cladistic analysis of Stylonurina shows the genus Drepanopterus is monophyletic and consists of D. pentlandicus, D. abonensis and D. odontospathus sp. nov., and forms a basal clade of mycteropoids. Hibbertopteroidea Kjellesvig-Waering, 1959 is shown to be a junior subjective synonym of Mycteropoidea Cope, 1886, with the synonymy of many of the hibbertopterid genera hypothesised and Hibbertopterus Kjellesvig-Waering, 1959 suggested to represent juvenile specimens of Cyrtoctenus Størmer & Waterston, 1968. Hibbertopterus permianus Ponomarenko, 1985 is transferred to Campylocephalus Eichwald, 1860. The role of heterochrony in the morphological development of the mycteropoid lineage is discussed, with both hibbertopterids and mycteropids being hypertrophic and pre displacement peramorphs respectively that lie along peramorphoclines.