Redlichia chinensis is a n extinct species of

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 ...

that existed from 526 million years ago to 513 million years ago in the early

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 ...

period (4th stage).

Ecology

The species is a nektobenthic deposit feeder.

History

''R. chinensis'' was discovered by Chang in 1966 in the

Balang formation The Balang formation, is a Cambrian Period geological formation, which outcrops in western Hunan and eastern Guizhou in southern China. It contains Burgess Shale-type soft-bodied fossils. It is intermediate in age between the Chengjiang and Ka ...

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 ...

. 19 fossils have been discovered.

Morphology

''R. chinensis'' has a wide

cephalon Cephalon, Inc. was an American biopharmaceutical company co-founded in 1987 by pharmacologist Frank Baldino, Jr., neuroscientist Michael Lewis, and organic chemist James C. Kauer—all three former scientists with the DuPont Company. Baldino s ...

with a border and the glaella tapers forwards. The hypostoma has been pushed through from the underside and the genal spines are not at the occipital edge. The

thorax The thorax or chest is a part of the anatomy of humans, mammals, and other tetrapod animals located between the neck and the abdomen. In insects, crustaceans, and the extinct trilobites, the thorax is one of the three main divisions of the cre ...

narrows to a small

pygidium The pygidium (plural pygidia) is the posterior body part or shield of crustaceans and some other arthropods, such as insects and the extinct trilobites. In groups other than insects, it contains the anus and, in females, the ovipositor. It is compo ...

and the pleurae terminate in short spines. R. chinensis is 7.5 centimeters long.

Reference

Redlichiidae {{Improve categories, date=May 2022