Tricrepicephalus

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Tricrepicephalus
Temporal range: Dresbachian
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Tricrepicephalus texanus CRF.jpg
Tricrepicephalus texanus, 19 mm
Scientific classification
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Tricrepicephalus

Kobayashi, 1935
species
  • T. texanus(Shumard, 1861) (type species) = Arionellus texanus, Batyurus texanus, T. coria
  • T. arcuatusTasch, 1951
  • T. asiaticusYuan & Yin, 1998
  • T. tripunctatus(Whitfield, 1875) = Arionellus tripunctatus
Synonyms

ParacrepicephalusLochman, 1936

Tricrepicephalus is an extinct genus of ptychopariid trilobites of the family Tricrepicephalidae with species of average size. Its species lived from 501 to 497 million years ago during the Dresbachian faunal stage of the late Cambrian Period. Fossils of Tricrepicephalus are widespread in Late Cambrian deposits in North America, but is also known from one location in South America. Tricrepicephalus has an inverted egg-shaped exoskeleton, with three characteristic pits in the fold that parallels the margin of the headshield just in front of the central raised area. The articulating middle part of the body has 12 segments and the tailshield carries two long, tubular, curved pygidial spines that are reminiscent of earwig's pincers that rise backwards from the plain of the body at approximately 30°. [1]

Contents

Description

The outline of the exoskeleton of Tricrepicephalus is an inverted egg shaped though almost ovate, widest at the tip of the genal spines and 1.2× as long as wide, not including the pygidial spines. The headshield (or cephalon) is moderately vaulted. The well-defined central raised area (or glabella) is convex, elongate tapering, with a rounded front, and has only one furrow, crossing it near the back of the cephalon, defining the occipital ring. A node may be present on the occipital ring. The remaining parts of the cephalon, called fixed and free cheeks (or fixigenae and librigenae) are upsloping. The fracture lines (or sutures) that in moulting separate the librigenae from the fixigenae are divergent just in front of the eyes, becoming parallel near the border furrow and slightly convergent at the margin. From the back of the eyes the sutures follow a lazy S-curve, diverging first more outward and near the margin more backward, cutting the posterior margin within the inner bend of the spine (or opisthoparian sutures). Uniquely, the furrow parallel to the margin (or border furrow) has 2 not very noticeable pits in front of the glabella, and rarely a very faint 3rd median pit. There are no ridges that connect the eye to the glabella. The medium-sized eyes (over ⅓× the length of the glabella) are slightly behind the middle of the glabella. Genal angle ending in short spines extending backward about one thorax segment. The articulating middle part of the body (or thorax) has 12 segments. The axis is convex, and less than ½× as wide as each of the so-called pleurae to its sides. Segments pointed sideways with a rounded front (a shape called falcate). The tailshield (or pygidium) is about ½× as wide as the cephalon, almost twice as wide as long, excluding the two, widely spaced spines. These are at an angle of approximately 30° with the rest body. The axis in the pygidium is 1¼× longer than wide, with almost parallel sides, almost reaching the rear margin, with 3 or 4 axial rings; 3 sets of interpleural grooves and pleural furrows ending at distance of the margin. There is no furrow that would define a border in the pygidium. [1]

Differences with Meteoraspis

Meteoraspis has two equally prominent pits in the anterior border furrow, a much more vaulted cephalon, with short spines reaching to about the second thorax segment, 13 thorax segments and two flat, shark tooth shaped, widely spaced spines on the pygidium. [1]

Reassigned species

Distribution

Ecology

T. tripunctatus occurs together with trilobite species from the genera Coosia, Crepicephalus, Kingstonia, Pseudagnostina, and Coosina. [5]

Related Research Articles

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<i>Phalagnostus</i>

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marocconus</span>

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<i>Delgadella</i>

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<i>Toragnostus</i>

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<i>Psychopyge</i>

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Orygmaspis is a genus of asaphid trilobite with an inverted egg-shaped outline, a wide headshield, small eyes, long genal spines, 12 spined thorax segments and a small, short tailshield, with four pairs of spines. It lived during the Upper Cambrian in what are today Canada and the United States.

<i>Genevievella</i>

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Anabaraspis is a genus of redlichiid trilobite. A. splendens occurs in the uppermost Lower Cambrian and lowest Middle Cambrian of Russia. In Anabaraspis there is a long area in front of the glabella which is not differentiated in a border and a preglabellar field. This is a unique character in the family Paradoxididae. The frontal lobe of the central raised area of the headshield is slightly pointed, rather than rounded or truncate, a character shared with Plutonides, though, in Plutonides it hangs over the short anterior border.

References

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  2. Yuan, J.L.; Yin, G.Z. (1998). "New polymerid trilobites from the Chefu Formation in early Late Cambrian of eastern Guizhou". Acta Palaeontologica Sinica. 37 (2): 137–172.cited inUta Merkel. "Yangweizhou-Jimachong, Blackwelderia zone". Fossilworks. Retrieved 17 December 2021.
  3. Tasch, P. . (1951). "Fauna and paleoecology of the Upper Cambrian Warrior Formation of central Pennsylvania". Journal of Paleontology. 25 (3): 275–306.cited inUta Merkel. "Highway No. 322 near Waddle, Bed 13.3". Fossilworks. Retrieved 17 December 2021.
  4. 1 2 Stitt, J.H.; Perfetta, P.J. (2000). "Trilobites, Biostratigraphy, and Lithostratigraphy of the Crepicephalus and Aphelaspis zones, Lower Deadwood formation (Marjuman and Steptoean Stages, Upper Cambrian), Black Hills, South Dakota". Journal of Paleontology. 74 (2): 199–223. doi:10.1666/0022-3360(2000)074<0199:tbalot>2.0.co;2. S2CID   130113268.cited inKyle Straub. "High School Sample 34". Fossilworks. Retrieved 17 December 2021.
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