Greenops

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Greenops Fossil range: Devonian
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Arthropoda Class: Trilobita Superfamily: Acastoidea Family: Acastidae Genus: Greenops

Greenops is a mid-sized Devonian trilobite of the order Phacopida, subfamily Asteropyginae. They are mainly reported from the mid-Devonian Hamilton Group of upstate New York and southwestern Ontario. A similar-looking trilobite from Morocco is often mis-labelled Greenops. Greenops has schizocroidal eyes (resembling compound eyes in insects), large genal spines and short, sharp spines at the tip of each segment of the pydgidium ("tail"). Greenops lived in warm, fairly deep water. In the Hamiltin Group of New York, they are found with Phacops, Dipleura and Bellacartwrightia, a trilobite that resembles Greenops but has much larger pygidial spines. In Ontario, they are found in the Widder Formation, which outcrops at Arkona, where they are, by far, the dominant trilobite. Greenops' average size is about 1 to 1.5 inches.

[edit] References

Ludvigsen, Rolf, Fossils of Ontario, Part 1: The Trilobites. Toronto: Royal Ontario Museum Press, 1983