''Balcoracania dailyi'' is a small (typically about )

trilobite Trilobites (; meaning "three-lobed entities") are extinction, extinct marine arthropods that form the class (biology), class Trilobita. One of the earliest groups of arthropods to appear in the fossil record, trilobites were among the most succ ...

of the family

Emuellidae Emuellidae are a small family of trilobites, a group of extinct marine arthropods, that lived during the late Lower Cambrian (late Botomian) of the East Gondwana supercontinent, in what are today South-Australia and Antarctica. Description E ...

. Its fossils have been found in south Australia and Antarctica.

Etymology

The genus name is derived from Balcoracana Creek in the

Flinders Ranges The Flinders Ranges are the largest mountain ranges in South Australia, which starts about north of Adelaide. The ranges stretch for over from Port Pirie to Lake Callabonna. The Adnyamathanha people are the Aboriginal group who have inhab ...

, one of the sites where fossils of ''Balcoracania'' were collected. The species

epithet An epithet (, ), also a byname, is a descriptive term (word or phrase) commonly accompanying or occurring in place of the name of a real or fictitious person, place, or thing. It is usually literally descriptive, as in Alfred the Great, Suleima ...

''dailyi'' is in honor of Dr. B. Daily, of the Geology Department, University of Adelaide.

Description

It can be recognised by a short field between the front of the axis in the head (or glabella) and the border ridge, and a semi-circular headshield, as compared to touching glabella and border, and the sub-pentagonal head, in the sister-genus '' Emuella''. Both emuellid genera share eye ridges that are positioned parallel to the frontal and lateral border of the head, prominent genal spines that are a smooth continuation of the lateral margin of the head, a prothorax of 6 segments, with the 5th and 6th merged and carrying large trailing spines. Both genera have in adulthood a highly variable but large number of segments of the opistothorax, although the largest number found in ''B. dailyi'' with 97 is much larger than in ''Emuella'' (52). ''B. dailyi'' is the only known species in this genus (i.e., the genus is

monotypic In biology, a monotypic taxon is a taxonomic group (taxon) that contains only one immediately subordinate taxon. A monotypic species is one that does not include subspecies or smaller, infraspecific taxa. In the case of genera, the term "unisp ...

Ecology

''Balcoracania dailyi'' was an inhabitant of protected, shallow, marginal, marine environments. ''B. dailyi'' is usually the only trilobite present, but brachiopods may be present, too. Tubular burrows show it shared its ecosystem with soft-bodied animals.

References

Emuelloidea Cambrian trilobites of Australia Emu Bay Shale Cambrian trilobites of Antarctica Cambrian genus extinctions {{redlichiida-stub