''Oryctocephalus indicus'' is a
species
In biology, a species is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of ...
of
corynexochid 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 ...
from the
Cambrian
The Cambrian Period ( ; sometimes symbolized Ꞓ) was the first geological period of the Paleozoic Era, and of the Phanerozoic Eon. The Cambrian lasted 53.4 million years from the end of the preceding Ediacaran Period 538.8 million years ag ...
. Its first appearance is proposed for the lower boundary of the
Wuliuan
The Wuliuan stage is the fifth stage of the Cambrian, and the first stage of the Miaolingian Series of the Cambrian. It was formally defined by the ICS in 2018.
Its base is defined by the first appearance of the trilobite species '' Oryctocepha ...
, which corresponds to the beginning of the
Miaolingian
The Miaolingian is the third Series of the Cambrian Period, and was formally named in 2018. It lasted from about to million years ago and is divided in ascending order into 3 stages: the Wuliuan, Drumian, and Guzhangian. The Miaolingian is pre ...
(The other proposal was ''
Ovatoryctocara granulata'').
The species was first described by the British
paleontologist
Paleontology (), also spelled palaeontology or palæontology, is the scientific study of life that existed prior to, and sometimes including, the start of the Holocene epoch (roughly 11,700 years before present). It includes the study of foss ...
Frederick Richard Cowper Reed in 1910 as ''Zacanthoides indicus''.
It was transferred to the genus ''
Oryctocephalus
''Oryctocephalus'' is a genus of trilobite known from the Middle Cambrian Burgess Shale. 24 specimens of ''Oryctocephalus'' are known from the Greater Phyllopod bed, where they comprise 0.42% of the community. This small- to medium-sized trilobit ...
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