{{Short description|Extinct genus of artiopodan}} {{automatic taxobox | fossil_range = Homerian | image = Carimersa.jpg | display_parents = 2 | taxon = Carimersa | authority = Briggs et al. 2023 | type_species = Carimersa neptuni | type_species_authority = Briggs et al. 2023 }} '''''Carimersa''''' is an extinct genus of artiopodan arthropod known from the Silurian Coalbrookdale Formation of Herefordshire, England.
== Description == The body is flattened, and divided into the head with five pairs of paired appendages, the trunk with 10 appendage-bearing segments, a limbless abdomen with 4 segments, with the body terminating with tailspine. The total length of the body excluding the tailspine is around {{Convert|3|cm|in}}, with a max width of about {{Convert|1.25|cm|in}}. The first antennae-like head appendage bears three flagellae-like structures. The second and third head appendages are uniramous and have basipods (basal segments) modified into spined gnathobases (used to process food). The last two head appendages and the trunk limbs are biramous, and have robust endopods that bear spines, with the exopods being flap-like and reinforced by a rod-like structure.<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal |last1=Briggs |first1=Derek E. G. |last2=Siveter |first2=David J. |last3=Siveter |first3=Derek J. |last4=Sutton |first4=Mark D. |last5=Legg |first5=David |last6=Lamsdell |first6=James C. |date=August 2023 |title=A vicissicaudatan arthropod from the Silurian Herefordshire Lagerstätte, UK |journal=Royal Society Open Science |language=en |volume=10 |issue=8 |doi=10.1098/rsos.230661 |doi-access=free|issn=2054-5703 |pmc=10394423 |pmid=37538743|bibcode=2023RSOS...1030661B }}</ref>
== Ecology == [[File:Carimersa And Colymbosathon.png|thumb|upright|left|Life reconstruction of a Carimersa neptuni hunting Colymbosathon ecplecticos]] ''Carimersa'' was likely an actively swimming organism that probably swam close to the sediment surface. The presence of associated shelly microfossils of radiolarians and gastropods suggests that it may have been a microdurophagous predator, using the spines on its limb endopods to capture prey and move it towards the mouth, where it would be processed by the gnathobases on the second and third head appendages before being ingested.<ref name=":0" />
== Taxonomy == ''Carimersa'' has been placed as a member of Vicissicaudata within Artiopoda, more closely related to Aglaspidida, ''Kodymirus'' and ''Eozetetes'' than to Cheloniellida, ''Sidneyia'' or ''Emeraldella''.<ref name=":0" /> Cladogram after McCoy et al. 2025:<ref name="tardisia2">{{cite journal |last1=McCoy |first1=Victoria E. |last2=Herrera |first2=Fabiany |last3=Wittry |first3=Jack |last4=Mayer |first4=Paul |last5=Lamsdell |first5=James C. |date=2025 |title=A possible vicissicaudatan arthropod from the Late Carboniferous Mazon Creek Lagerstätte |journal=Geological Magazine |volume=162 |doi=10.1017/S001675682400044X|bibcode=2025GeoM..162E...3M |doi-access=free }}</ref>{{Clade|{{clade |label1=Vicissicaudata |1={{Clade sequential |1=''Molaria spinifera'' 70px |2=''Emeraldella brocki'' |3=''Emeraldella brutoni'' 100px |4={{Clade sequential |1=''Sidneyia inexpectans'' 100px |2=''Tardisia broedeae'' |3=Cheloniellida 150px }} |5='''''Carimersa neptuni''''' |6=''Kodymirus vagans'' 70px |7=''Eozetetes gemelli'' |8=Aglaspidida 100px }} }}|label1=}}
==References== {{reflist}}
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Category:Artiopoda Category:Monotypic artiopod genera Category:Fossil taxa described in 2023 Category:Silurian arthropods of Europe