''Balizoma'' is a genus of

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 ...

s from the family

Encrinuridae Encrinuridae is a family of trilobite within the order Phacopida that lived in what would be Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe, North America, and South America from the middle Ordovician to the early Devonian from , existing for approximately . T ...

established by David J. Holloway in 1980. It has only been found in rocks of Silurian age. Its

type species In zoological nomenclature, a type species (''species typica'') is the species name with which the name of a genus or subgenus is considered to be permanently taxonomically associated, i.e., the species that contains the biological type specime ...

, ''B. variolaris'' (Brongniart, 1822), is currently the only named species of the genus, and is found in

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. The neotype of ''B. variolaris'' was collected from the Much Wenlock Limestone Formation at

Dudley Dudley is a large market town and administrative centre in the county of West Midlands, England, southeast of Wolverhampton and northwest of Birmingham. Historically an exclave of Worcestershire, the town is the administrative centre of the ...

West Midlands West or Occident is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from east and is the direction in which the Sun sets on the Earth. Etymology The word "west" is a Germanic word passed into some ...

. That specimen was first illustrated in Sir Roderick Impey Murchison's classic book, '' The Silurian System''. ''B. variolaris'' was the original "strawberry-headed" trilobite of Dudley, so-named because of its nodular glabellar tubercles, and well known to early trilobite collectors. Additional species were originally assigned to ''Balizoma'', but were subsequently placed in other encrinurine genera.

References

External links

*

''Balizoma'' in the

Paleobiology Database The Paleobiology Database is an online resource for information on the distribution and classification of fossil animals, plants, and microorganisms. History The Paleobiology Database (PBDB) originated in the NCEAS-funded Phanerozoic Marine Pale ...

*

Listing of ''Balizoma variolaris'' neotype in Online Collections at University of Birmingham registry. *

Listing in Official Lists and Indexes of Names and Works in Zoology, 1987 (page 307)] *

Listing in Official Lists and Indexes of Names and Works in Zoology, Supplement 1986-2000 (page 131) Encrinuridae genera Silurian trilobites of Europe Silurian animals of Europe Paleozoic life of the Northwest Territories Paleozoic life of Yukon {{Phacopida-stub