Westergaardites

Westergaardites
Temporal range: Upper Cambrian
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Trilobita
Order: Ptychopariida
Suborder: Olenina
Family: Olenidae
Subfamily: Triarthrinae
Genus: Westergaardites
Throedson, 1937
Species
  • W. pelturaeformis Throedson, 1937 (type)

Westergaardites is an Upper Cambrian trilobite that is known from the Eastern Tian Shan (Central Asia). It is related to Triarthrus, but can easily be distinguished from it by an extremely long exoskeleton, anteriorly placed eyes, a thorax of 19 segments with an extremely wide axis, and very narrow pleural regions, pleural spines, and a pygidium with marginal spines.[1]

References

  1. ↑ Moore, R.C. (1959). Arthropoda I - Arthropoda General Features, Proarthropoda, Euarthropoda General Features, Trilobitomorpha. Treatise on Invertebrate Paleontology. Part O. Boulder, Colorado/Lawrence, Kansas: Geological Society of America/University of Kansas Press. pp. 1–560. ISBN 0-8137-3015-5.