Leonaspis

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Leonaspis
Temporal range: Late Ordovician to Middle Devonian
Leonaspis and Paciphacops.jpg
Leonaspis williamsi (lower left) with Paciphacops raymondi (upper right)
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Leonaspis

Leonaspis is a widespread genus of odontopleurid trilobite that lived from the Late Ordovician to the late Middle Devonian. [1] Fossils of various species have been found on all continents except Antarctica.

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Hollardops is a genus of trilobite in the order Phacopida that lived during the Devonian. Their fossils are found in the upper Emsian of western Europe and in the lower Emsian to lowermost Eifelian of North Africa. The type species, Asteropyge mesocristata, was described from Algeria by Le Maître in 1952. The genus Hollardops was erected by Morzadec in 1997. In the same year, Lieberman & Kloc erected Modellops and Philipsmithiana but those genera are regarded as subjective synonyms of Hollardops. The 10-segmented thoracic condition of Hollardops is a rare feature among acastid trilobites that almost always have 11 thorax segments. Van Viersen & Kloc (2022) revisited Hollardops and described a number of new species from the Devonian of Morocco. They also regarded Pennarbedops Bignon & Crônier, 2013 as a synonym of Hollardops. Van Viersen & Kloc construed Hollardops as a scavenger or predator with well-developed eyes, that used its shovel-like cephalon to plough the top layers of the sediment in search of food. Hollardops had small pits horizontally along the fringe of the exoskeleton; these are believed to have housed setae that allowed the trilobite to closely monitor its surroundings.

References

  1. Feist, Raimund; McNAMARA, Kenneth J. (September 2007). "Biodiversity, distribution and patterns of extinction of the last odontopleuroid trilobites during the Devonian (Givetian, Frasnian)". Geological Magazine. 144 (5): 777–796. Bibcode:2007GeoM..144..777F. doi:10.1017/s0016756807003779. ISSN   1469-5081. S2CID   128918534.