''Balnibarbi'' is an

extinct Extinction is the termination of a kind of organism or of a group of kinds (taxon), usually a species. The moment of extinction is generally considered to be the death of the last individual of the species, although the capacity to breed and ...

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus com ...

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 At ...

s in the family

Olenidae Olenidae is a family of ptychopariid trilobites. Some genera, ''Balnibarbi'' and ''Cloacaspis'', are thought to have evolved a symbiotic relationship with sulfur-eating bacteria from which they derived nutrition. Genera * Acerocare * Aceroca ...

. They are known from

fossil A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserved ...

s excavated in

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and t ...

. They lived during the early part of the Arenig stage of the

Ordovician Period The Ordovician ( ) is a geologic period and system, the second of six periods of the Paleozoic Era. The Ordovician spans 41.6 million years from the end of the Cambrian Period million years ago (Mya) to the start of the Silurian Period Mya. The ...

, a

faunal stage In chronostratigraphy, a stage is a succession of rock strata laid down in a single age on the geologic timescale, which usually represents millions of years of deposition. A given stage of rock and the corresponding age of time will by convent ...

that occurred about 479 to 472 million years ago.''Balnibarbi''.
Fossilworks. The genus is ancestral to, and co-existed sympatrically with, the better-known ''

Cloacaspis ''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 ...

''. Fortey, R. A. 1974
The Ordovician trilobites of Spitsbergen. I. Olenidae.
Norsk Polarinstitutt Skrifter 160, 1-129. It was named for the fictional country of Balnibarbi featured in ''

Gulliver's Travels ''Gulliver's Travels'', or ''Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World. In Four Parts. By Lemuel Gulliver, First a Surgeon, and then a Captain of Several Ships'' is a 1726 prose satire by the Anglo-Irish writer and clergyman Jonathan ...

'', a place "populated by eccentric natural philosophers." Species include: *'' Balnibarbi ceryx'' *'' Balnibarbi erugata'' *'' Balnibarbi pulvurea'' *'' Balnibarbi scimitar'' *'' Balnibarbi sombrero'' *'' Balnibarbi tholia''

References

Early Ordovician trilobites of Europe Fossils of Norway Olenina Ptychopariida genera {{ptychopariida-stub