''Oryctocephalus indicus'' is a

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...

of corynexochid

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 ...

from the

Cambrian The Cambrian Period ( ; sometimes symbolized C with bar, Ꞓ) was the first geological period of the Paleozoic Era, and of the Phanerozoic Eon. The Cambrian lasted 53.4 million years from the end of the preceding Ediacaran Period 538.8 million ...

. Its first appearance is proposed for the lower boundary of the

Wuliuan The Wuliuan stage is the fifth stage of the Cambrian, and the first stage of the Miaolingian Series of the Cambrian. It was formally defined by the ICS in 2018. Its base is defined by the first appearance of the trilobite species ''Oryctocephalu ...

, which corresponds to the beginning of the

Miaolingian The Miaolingian is the third Series of the Cambrian Period, and was formally named in 2018. It lasted from about to million years ago and is divided in ascending order into 3 stages: the Wuliuan, Drumian, and Guzhangian. The Miaolingian is prec ...

(The other proposal was ''

Ovatoryctocara granulata ''Ovatoryctocara granulata'' is a species of corynexochid trilobite from the Cambrian. Its first appearance is one of the proposals for the base of Wuliuan (The other proposal having been ''Oryctocephalus indicus''). The species was first formal ...

''). The species was first described by the British

paleontologist Paleontology (), also spelled palaeontology or palæontology, is the scientific study of life that existed prior to, and sometimes including, the start of the Holocene epoch (roughly 11,700 years before present). It includes the study of fossi ...

Frederick Richard Cowper Reed in 1910 as ''Zacanthoides indicus''. It was transferred to the genus '' Oryctocephalus'' by the American paleontologist Charles Elmer Resser in 1938.

References

Oryctocephalidae Cambrian trilobites Fossil taxa described in 1910 Index fossils {{Corynexochida-stub