Bathyuriscus

Bathyuriscus is an extinct genus of Cambrian trilobite. It was a nektobenthic predatory carnivore. Specimens have been found in the Marjumian of the USA (New York) and in the Middle Cambrian of Australia, Canada (British Columbia, especially in the Burgess Shale, and Newfoundland), Greenland, Mexico, and the USA (Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Pennsylvania, Utah, and Vermont).^[1] Its major characteristics are a large forward-reaching glabella, pointed pleurae or pleurae with very short spines, and a medium pygidium with well-impressed furrows. Complete specimens have never reached the size of 7 cm predicted by the largest pygidium found. Bathyuriscus is often found with the glabellar free cheeks shed, indicating a moulted exoskeleton.^[2] An average specimen will in addition have a furrowed glabella, crescent-shaped eyes, be semi-circular in overall body shape, have 7 to 9 thoracic segments, and a length of about 1.5 inches.^[3]

Species

Orriella Rasetti, 1938 is a junior synonym.

^ "Bathyuriscus" Paleobiology Database, accessed March 28, 2011
^ Coppold, Murray and Wayne Powell (2006). A Geoscience Guide to the Burgess Shale, p.56. The Burgess Shale Geoscience Foundation, Field, British Columbia. ISBN 0978013204.
^ Rhodes, Frank H. T.; Herbert S. Zim and Paul R. Shaffer (1962). Fossils: A Guide to Prehistoric Life. New York City, NY, USA: Western Publishing Company, Inc.. pp. 95. ISBN 0-307-24411-3.