''Pricyclopyge'' is a genus of
trilobites assigned to the family
Cyclopygidae that occurs throughout the
Ordovician. ''Pricyclopyge'' had a
extratropical distribution, and there is evidence that it lived in
darker parts of the water column (around 175m deep). ''Pricyclopyge'' has huge eyes, an inverted pear-shaped glabella, six thorax segments, with on the 3rd two small discs.
[Whittington, H. B. et al. (1997) Treatise on Invertebrate Paleontology. Part O, Revised, Volume 1 – Trilobita – Introduction, Order Agnostida, Order Redlichiida.] ''Pricyclopyge'' is known from what are today China, the Czech Republic, France, and the United Kingdom.
[Paleobiology Database]
Description
Like other cyclopygids, ''Pricyclopyge'' lacks
genal spines. ''Pricyclopyge'' has six
thorax segments of which the third from the front carries two very characteristic round discs that are presumed to have been
bioluminescent
Bioluminescence is the production and emission of light by living organisms. It is a form of chemiluminescence. Bioluminescence occurs widely in marine vertebrates and invertebrates, as well as in some Fungus, fungi, microorganisms including ...
organs, and if true, this suggests that ''Pricyclopyge'' swam upside down. It has a wide and stout axis, that tapers gradually backwards until it ends in a semicircle close to the border of the pygidium. The short side lobes (or
pleurae) of the thorax segments gradually become wider further back so that the thorax is widest at its back, with the tips of the pleurae of the 6th segment sometimes enlarged, bent backwards and so bordering the
pygidium.
The pygidium is more than twice as wide as long, the axis showing 3 or 4 clearly defined rings, while segmentation of the pleural area is barely visible. The pygidial border furrow is clear.
Eyes
Like all cyclopygids, ''Pricyclopyge'' has huge eyes, that largely encircle the inverted pear-shaped
glabella. These eyes have a wide angle of view, both horizontal and vertical, reminiscent of the eyes of
dragonflies. The individual lenses in the eyes are hexagonally arranged, with their centers approximately 0.25 mm apart.
Merger of both eyes, creating a
visor, has appeared in several cyclopigid genera, but only in ''Pricyclopyge binodosa'' several stages in this development can be seen as a consecutive series of subspecies collected from successive zones in the late
Arenig to the
Llanvirn.
This development improves the sensitivity of the eye for objects that move relative to the eye, which might have been particularly useful under low-light conditions and when rapidly moving. The extant
hyperiid amphipod
Amphipoda is an order of malacostracan crustaceans with no carapace and generally with laterally compressed bodies. Amphipods range in size from and are mostly detritivores or scavengers. There are more than 9,900 amphipod species so far descr ...
''
Cystisoma'' also has such fused eyes.
Although the distance between the eyes varies within any one population of the earlier subspecies, the eyes only touch and merge in ''P. binodosa synophthalma''. Monocular trilobites are always younger than closely related species with normal paired eyes, and is an example of a trend
that occurred several times in parallel.
Ecology
It is presumed that ''Pricyclopyge'' swam upside down in dimly lit oceanic waters outside the tropic belt. It occurs together with other cyclopygids, blind or nearly blind deepwater benthic trilobites, and free-floating oceanic
graptolites.
It probably hunted the
zooplankton and may have migrated in the evening towards the surface and in the morning to greater depths, following prey and possibly avoiding some of its potential predators.
References
{{Taxonbar, from=Q16988487
Cyclopygidae
Asaphida genera
Ordovician trilobites
Fossils of China
Fossils of the Czech Republic
Fossils of France
Fossils of Great Britain
Fossil taxa described in 1954