''Kongqiaoheia rotundata'' is an asaphid

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 of the

family Family (from la, familia) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its ...

Raphiophoridae Raphiophoridae is a family of small to average-sized trilobites that first occurred at the start of the Ordovician and became extinct at the end of the Middle Silurian. Anatomy All raphiophorids are blind, with headshields (or cephalons) tha ...

that lived during the late

Caradoc Caradoc Vreichvras (; Modern cy, Caradog Freichfras, ) was a semi-legendary ancestor to the kings of Gwent. He may have lived during the 5th or 6th century. He is remembered in the Matter of Britain as a Knight of the Round Table, under the na ...

Inner Mongolia Inner Mongolia, officially the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, is an autonomous region of the People's Republic of China. Its border includes most of the length of China's border with the country of Mongolia. Inner Mongolia also accounts for a ...

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

. ''K. rotundata'' was originally grouped with the so-called Taklamakaniinae, a paraphyletic group of tiny, dwarfed raphiophorids that lived in a deepwater environment in what is now the

Tarim Basin The Tarim Basin is an endorheic basin in Northwest China occupying an area of about and one of the largest basins in Northwest China.Chen, Yaning, et al. "Regional climate change and its effects on river runoff in the Tarim Basin, China." Hydr ...

, including '' Pseudampyxina'', ''

Nanshanaspis ''Nanshanaspis'' is a genus of asaphid trilobites of the family Raphiophoridae that lived during the late Caradoc of Inner Mongolia, China. Like all raphiophorids it is blind, with a headshield (or cephalon) that is subsemicircular, carrying gen ...

'', and ''

Taklamakania ''Taklamakania'' is a genus of asaphid trilobites of the family Raphiophoridae that lived during the late Caradoc of Inner Mongolia, China. Like all raphiophorids it is blind, with a headshield (or cephalon) that is subsemicircular, carrying ge ...

''. Like these other genera, ''K. rotundata'' has only three thoracic segments, probably due to paedomorphic dwarfism: other raphiophorid trilobites have at minimum five thoracic segments.

Morphology

As with other "taklamakaniids," ''K. rotundata'' had a disk-shaped body with a semi-circular cephalon, a bulbous glabellum, and a pair of very long, thin, librigenial spines emanating from the lateral corners of the cephalon. There are a pair of bulbous structures on the pygidium. ''K. rotundata'' differs from ''Taklamakania'' by lacking a spine on the anterior of the glabellum. It differs from ''Nanshanaspis'' in the shapes of the cephalon, glabellum, pygidium and the various glabellal and pygidial furrows. ''K. rotundata'' differs from ''Pseudampyxina'' in that the former's glabellum does not protrude anteriorially as the latter's.

References

Asaphida genera Ordovician trilobites of Asia Fossils of China {{asaphida-stub