Emuelloidae are a small superfamily of trilobites, a group of extinct marine arthropods, that lived during the late Lower Cambrian (late Botomian) of the East Gondwana supercontinent, in what are today South-Australia and Antarctica. Emuelloidea can be recognized by having a prothorax consisting of 3 or 6 segments, the most backward one of which is carrying very large trailing spines. Behind it is the so-called opistothorax. There are two families, the Emuellidae (with a prothorax of six segments) and the Megapharanaspididae (with a prothorax of three segments).[1]

Emuelloidea
Temporal range: 517 Ma
late Botomian
Balcoracania dailyi  of the family Emuellidae
Lower Cambrian Emu Shale
Kangaroo Island, South Australia
© Dave Simpson
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Trilobita
Order: Redlichiida
Suborder: Redlichiina
Superfamily: Emuelloidea
Pocock, 1970
Families

References

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  1. ^ Paterson, R.J.; Jago, J.B. (2006). "New trilobites from the Lower Cambrian Emu Bay Shale Lagerstätte at Big Gully, Kangaroo Island, South Australia". Memoirs of the Association of Australasian Palaeontologists. 32: 43–57. hdl:1959.14/10651. ISSN 0810-8889.