''Plutonides'' is a genus of

Middle Cambrian Middle or The Middle may refer to: * Centre (geometry), the point equally distant from the outer limits. Places * Middle (sheading), a subdivision of the Isle of Man * Middle Bay (disambiguation) * Middle Brook (disambiguation) * Middle Creek ...

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 ...

in the family

Paradoxididae The Paradoxididae are a family of trilobites, a group of extinct marine arthropods. They occurred during the late Lower Cambrian (Toyonian) and disappeared at the end of the Middle Cambrian. Representatives of this family have been found in the ...

with species ''Plutonides sedgwickii'' and possibly ''Plutonides? illingi''. Several other species and subspecies were at times placed in ''Plutonides'' but have subsequently been moved to other genera. In terms of the Scandinavian Middle Cambrian sequence the genus ranges from the ''Baltoparadoxides oelandicus'' Biosuperzone (''B. pinus'' Biosubzone) at the type locality for ''P. sedwickii'' on Trwyncynddeiriog headland located south-southwest of St David’s Cathedral and east of Porth Clais Harbour - Pen-y-Cyfrwy Member, Newgale Formation, and possibly to middle part of the ''Mawddachites hicksii'' Biozone on the Penpleidiau (eastern) Headland of Caerfai Bay south of St David’s in southwest Wales, where ''P? illingi'' occurs ocs. TC-1 & CF-1 of Rees ''et al.''ref name="Rees2014"/>

Type

''Plutonia sedgwickii'' is the type species for the genus and was first described in 1871 as ''"Plutonia" sedgwickii''. However the genus name ''"Plutonia"'' had already been used for the

Vitrinidae Vitrinidae is a family of small, air-breathing land snails, terrestrial pulmonate gastropod mollusks in the superfamily Limacoidea (according to the taxonomy of the Gastropoda by Bouchet & Rocroi, 2005). MolluscaBase eds. (2021). MolluscaBas ...

snail genus '' Plutonia'' by Morelet ''in'' Stabile (1864), and so the new genus ''Plutonides'' was coined by Hicks (1895). The species Lectotype is SM A1086, an internal mould of cranidium,.

Species

''Paradoxides'' cf. ''sedgwickii'', described by Smith and White (1963) from the ''Baltoparadoxides pinus'' Biosubzone in the upper part of the Purley Shale Formation of Warwickshire, central England was redescribed by Rushton (1966, p. 42, pl. 6, figs. 1-10) as ‘''Paradoxides''’ ''sedgwickii porphyrus''. The subspecies has broader palpebral lobes and finer surface granulation than observed in ''P. sedgwickii sedgwickii''. Vanĕk ''et al.'' (1999) described cranidia from the Middle Cambrian of Skrije - Týřovice area in the Czech Republic as ''Plutonides hicksi'', although the specimens illustrated are of a different species to that from Wales. Fletcher (2007) however, has also since established the new subgenus, ''Paradoxides'' (''Mawddachites''), to include ''P. hicksii'' as type species. Alvarez ''et al.'' (2010) raised ''Mawddachites'' to a full genus.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q19840575 Paradoxidoidea Cambrian trilobites of Asia Fossils of Mongolia Fossils of Russia Cambrian trilobites of Europe Fossils of Sweden Fossils of Great Britain Cambrian trilobites of North America Fossils of Canada Paleontology in Newfoundland and Labrador Paleontology in Nova Scotia Fossil taxa described in 1895 Cambrian genus extinctions