Zacanthoides

Zacanthoides
Pencil and paper sketch of Zacanthoides typicalis. The animal has a rounded exoskeleton head and a long torso from which spines are protruding.
Zacanthoides typicalis by C.D Walcott (1886)
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Clade: Artiopoda
Class: Trilobita
Order: Corynexochida
Family: Zacanthoididae
Genus: Zacanthoides
Walcott, 1888

Zacanthoides is an extinct Cambrian genus of corynexochid trilobite. It was a nektobenthic predatory carnivore. Its remains have been found in Canada (British Columbia, especially in the Burgess Shale, and Newfoundland), Greenland, Mexico, and the United States (Alaska, Nevada, Utah, Vermont, and Idaho for which Z. idahoensis is named).[1] Its major characteristics are a slender exoskeleton with 9 thoracic segments, pleurae with long spines, additional spines on the axial rings, and a pygidium that is considerably smaller than its cephalon.[2]

Species

[edit]
  • Zacanthoides idahoensis
  • Zacanthoides kelsayae
  • Zacanthoides romingeri (type species)
  • Zacanthoides holopygus (unrecognized)
  • Zacanthoides gilberti (unrecognized)

Synonyms

[edit]

Embolimus is a synonym.[3][4]

References

[edit]
  1. ^ "Zacanthoides" Archived 2007-10-01 at the Wayback Machine Paleobiology Database, accessed March 28, 2011
  2. ^ Coppold, Murray and Wayne Powell (2006). A Geoscience Guide to the Burgess Shale, p.58. The Burgess Shale Geoscience Foundation, Field, British Columbia. ISBN 0-9780132-0-4.
  3. ^ Jell, P.A. & J.M. Adrain 2003. "Available generic names for trilobites" (PDF). (1.52 MiB) Memoirs of the Queensland Museum 48(2): 331-553. [see also Alphabetical Listing of Trilobite Generic Names
  4. ^ Sepkoski, J.J. Jr. 2002. A compendium of fossil marine animal genera. D.J. Jablonski & M.L. Foote (eds.). Bulletins of American Paleontology 363: 1–560. Sepkoski's Online Genus Database
[edit]