Cloacaspis

Cloacaspis
Temporal range: Early Arenig
Cloacaspis senilis, and C. ekphymosa
Scientific classification
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Olenoidea
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Cloacaspis

Fortey 1974

Cloacaspis is an extinct genus of Olenid Ptychopariid trilobite. 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 has proposed that these particular trilobites lived in anoxic regions of the ocean floor, and cultivated symbiotic, sulfur-metabolizing bacteria.