''Cloacaspis'' is an
extinct genus
Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial n ...
of
Olenid Ptychopariid trilobite
Trilobites (; meaning "three lobes") are extinct marine arthropods that form the class Trilobita. Trilobites form one of the earliest-known groups of arthropods. The first appearance of trilobites in the fossil record defines the base of the ...
. It lived during the early part of the
Arenig stage of the
Ordovician Period,
a
faunal stage which lasted from approximately 478 to 471 million years ago.
Richard Fortey
Richard Alan Fortey FRS FRSL (born 15 February 1946 in London) is a British palaeontologist, natural historian, writer and television presenter, who served as president of the Geological Society of London for its bicentennial year of 2007.
Ear ...
has proposed that these particular trilobites lived in anoxic regions of the ocean floor, and cultivated symbiotic, sulfur-metabolizing bacteria.
Etymology
The generic name is a compound word from Latin, "cloaca," meaning sewer, and from Greek, "aspis," meaning "shield." Thus, ''Cloacaspis'' translate as "sewer shield." In his book,
Trilobite! Eyewitness to Evolution, Fortey, who first discovered the genus in Ordovician strata in Spitsbergen, explained that the rocks they were found in had a rank, sulfurous odor, reminding him of raw sewage.
[Fortey, Richard. Trilobite! Eyewitness to Evolution Random House Inc, 2001 p 69]
References
Olenina
Ptychopariida genera
Early Ordovician trilobites of Europe
Fossils of Norway
Taxa named by Richard Fortey
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