Erbenochile

Taxobox
name = "Erbenochile"
fossil_range = Devonian

---

image_caption = "E. erbeni"
status=Fossil
regnum = Animalia
phylum = Arthropoda
classis = Trilobita
ordo = Phacopida
familia = Acastidae
genus = "Erbenochile"
type_species = "E. erbeni"
type_species_authority = Alberti, 1981
subdivision_ranks = Species
subdivision =
* "E. erbeni"

"Erbenochile" is a genus of spinose phacopid (acastid) trilobite found in Lower to Middle Devonian age rocks from Algeria and Morocco. Originally described from an isolated pygidium (Morzadec, 1995), the first complete articulated specimen revealed the presence of extraordinarily tall eyesThe eyes of "Erbenochile erbeni" had full 360 degree coverage in the horizontal plane and were high enough to allow the trilobite to see backwards over its thorax. The presence of eye shades, blocking glare from over head, definitively proved (at least some) trilobites were diurnal and not nocturnal, a detail of life habit which had previously been speculative: eyeshades are no use in the dark (Fortey & Chatterton, 2003).

Gallery

External Links

* [http://www.nhm.ac.uk/nature-online/virtual-wonders/vrtrilo1.html Big-eye trilobite: Erbenochile] - Natural History Museum (London) virtual tour

References

*Fortey, R., and Chatterton, N. 2003. A Devonian Trilobite with an Eyeshade. "Science". Vol 301:1689
*Morzadec, P. 1995. "Neues Jahrb. Geol. Paläontol. Monatsh." 1995:577 .