''Limniphacos'' is a

genus Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family (taxonomy), family as used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In bino ...

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

, a well known group of marine

arthropod Arthropods ( ) are invertebrates in the phylum Arthropoda. They possess an arthropod exoskeleton, exoskeleton with a cuticle made of chitin, often Mineralization (biology), mineralised with calcium carbonate, a body with differentiated (Metam ...

s. The genus so far contains one species, ''L. perspicullum''.

Etymology

''Limniphacos'' is derived from the

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

words ''limne'' (lake) and ''phakos'' (lens of the eye).

Distribution

Earliest portion of the upper part of the

Buen Formation The Buen Formation is a Formation (geology), geologic formation and Lagerstätte in Peary Land, North Greenland. The shale preserves fossils dating back to the Early Cambrian Period (geology), period (Atdabanian in the local timescale, about 520 ...

, Brillesø, North of the Jørgen Brønlund Fjord, Southern Peary Land, Greenland.

Ecology

''Limniphacos perspiculum'' occurs together with '' Mesolenellus hyperborea'', ''Serrodiscus'', hyoliths, ''Petrianna fulmenta'' (

Bradoriida Bradoriida, also called bradoriids, are an extinct order of small marine arthropods with a bivalved carapace, which globally distributed, forming a significant portion of the Cambrian and Early Ordovician soft-bodied communities. Affinity Whil ...

), and inarticulate brachiopods.

Description

The raised central part of the head shield (or glabella) is conical (with a narrow front and a wide back), and has four or five pairs of furrows. It does not reach the border furrow with its front. The eye lobes are short and do not reach the most backward glabellar lobe. The headshield (or

cephalon Cephalon, Inc. was an American biopharmaceutical company co-founded in 1987 by pharmacologist Frank Baldino Jr., Frank Baldino, Jr., neuroscientist Michael Lewis, and organic chemist James C. Kauer—all three former scientists with the DuPont ...

) carries four spines. Those closest to the axis (or intergenal spines) are short. The outer spines (or genal spines) are of moderate length and slightly in front of the back of the cehalon. The main body (or

thorax The thorax (: thoraces or thoraxes) or chest is a part of the anatomy of mammals and other tetrapod animals located between the neck and the abdomen. In insects, crustaceans, and the extinct trilobites, the thorax is one of the three main di ...

) has at least 12 segments with prominent spines. All parts are reticulate and granularly ornamented.

Habitat

''Limniphacos'' species were probably marine bottom dwellers, like all Olenellina.

References

Cambrian trilobites Fossils of Greenland Redlichiida genera Olenellina {{Redlichiida-stub