Biceratops

Biceratops
Temporal range: Toyonian (Upper Olenellus-zone) 516–513 Ma
↓
B. nevadensis
Scientific classification
Kingdom:
Animalia
Phylum:
Arthropoda
Class:
†Trilobita
Order:
†Redlichiida
Suborder:
†Olenellina
Superfamily:
†Olenelloidea
Family:
†Biceratopsidae
Subfamily:
†Biceratopsinae
Genus:
†Biceratops

Pack and Gayle, 1971
Species
  • B. nevadensis Pack and Gayle, 1971

Biceratops is an extinct genus of olenelloid redlichiid trilobites, of average size, with the largest specimen 8 centimetres or 3.1 inches long, not including the huge pleural spines of the 3rd segment of the thorax. It lived during the Toyonian stage (last phase of the Upper Olenellus-zone), in what is today the South-Western United States. Biceratops can easily be distinguished from other members of Biceratopsidae by the absence of genal spines, in combination with effaced features of the raised axial area of the head shield (or glabella), that is bordering the two horn-like projections that carry the eyes.[1] Biceratops nevadensis is the only known species in this genus (i.e. the genus is monotypic).

  1. ^ Pack, P. D.; Gayle, H. B. (2009). "A New Olenellid Trilobite, Biceratops nevadensis, from the Lower Cambrian near Las Vegas, Nevada". Journal of Paleontology. 45 (5): 893–898.