''Greenops'' is a mid-sized

Devonian The Devonian ( ) is a geologic period and system of the Paleozoic era, spanning 60.3 million years from the end of the Silurian, million years ago (Mya), to the beginning of the Carboniferous, Mya. It is named after Devon, England, whe ...

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 ...

of the order Phacopida, subfamily Asteropyginae. They are mainly reported from the mid-Devonian Hamilton Group of upstate New York and southwestern Ontario. A similar-looking trilobite from Morocco is often mis-labelled ''Greenops''. ''Greenops'' had schizocroidal eyes (resembling compound eyes in insects), large genal spines and short, sharp spines at the tip of each segment of the pygidium ("tail"). ''Greenops'' lived in warm, fairly deep water. In the

Hamilton Group The Hamilton Group is a Devonian-age geological group in the Appalachian region of the United States. It is present in New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Ohio, West Virginia, northwestern Virginia and Ontario, Canada. It is mainly composed of mar ...

of New York, they are found with ''

Eldredgeops ''Eldredgeops'' is a genus of trilobites in the order Phacopida, family Phacopidae, known from the late Middle and earliest Upper Devonian of Morocco and the USA. Description Like in all sighted Phacopina, the eyes of ''Eldredgeops'' are com ...

'', '' Dipleura'' and ''

Bellacartwrightia ''Bellacartwrightia'' is a relatively uncommon genus of phacopid trilobite, found in the mid- Devonian Hamilton Group of New York state, mainly in strata exposed near Lake Erie Lake Erie ( "eerie") is the fourth largest lake by surface ar ...

'', a trilobite that resembles ''Greenops'' but has much larger pygidial spines. In Ontario, they are found in the Widder Formation, which outcrops at Arkona, where they are, by far, the dominant trilobite. ''Greenops average size is about . They were fairly common trilobites, and are easily identified. While it is rare to find a complete disarticulated body, segments and tails are fairly common. They are fairly common finds in Late Devonian limestones, especially storm deposits. They are identified by their tails, which sport several spines. They were medium to small sized trilobites, which were most likely preyed upon by ammonoids, straight cephalopods, sharks, and small placoderms, hence the defensive spines. All of these animals have been found in close association with this trilobite. ''Greenops'' can also be found in deep marine deposits, but there it is fairly rare. ''Greenops'' was a small, yet charmingly beautiful trilobite, like its close companion ''Eldredgeops''.

Taxonomy

Species previously assigned to ''Greenops''

Some species originally described under this genus have since been reassigned to other genera. * ''G. alpensis'' = '' Kayserops alpensis'' * ''G. arkonensis'' = '' Stummiana arkonensis'' * ''G. chaconae'' = '' Breizhops chaconae'' * ''G. haasi'' = '' Deloops haasi'' * ''G. osismorum'' = '' Stummiana osismorum'' * ''G. pleione'' = '' Bellacartwrightia pleione'' * ''G. stellifer'' = '' Neometacantus stellifer'' * ''G. struvei'' = '' Modellops struvei'' * ''G. transversensis'' = '' Kayserops transversensis''

Distribution

Fossils of ''Greenops'' have been found in France, the

Floresta Formation The Floresta Formation ( es, Formación Floresta, Df) is a geological formation of the Altiplano Cundiboyacense in the Eastern Ranges of the Colombian Andes. The sequence of siltstones, shales, coquinas and sandstone beds dates to the Devonian per ...

of the Altiplano Cundiboyacense, Colombia,Morzadec et al., 2015, p.348 Libya, Spain, United States (Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, New York, Pennsylvania), Canada (Arkona, Ontario) and the Caño del Oeste Formation of Venezuela.''Greenops''
at

Fossilworks Fossilworks is a portal which provides query, download, and analysis tools to facilitate access to the Paleobiology Database The Paleobiology Database is an online resource for information on the distribution and classification of fossil animals ...

.org

Taxonomy

Species previously assigned to ''Greenops''

Distribution

References

Bibliography

Further reading