Aayemenaytcheia

Aayemenaytcheia paragranulata is a Middle Devonian proetid trilobite.

Aayemenaytcheia Temporal range: 407–392 Ma PreꞒ Ꞓ O S D C P T J K Pg N Emsian-Eifelian
Artist's reconstruction
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Clade:	†Artiopoda
Class:	†Trilobita
Order:	†Proetida
Family:	†Proetidae
Genus:	†Aayemenaytcheia Lieberman, 1994
Species:	†A. paragranulata
Binomial name
†Aayemenaytcheia paragranulata (Ormiston, 1967)
Synonyms
Dechenella paragranulata Ormiston, 1967

Etymology

The genus name is the vocalisation of the acronym AMNH of the American Museum of Natural History and the suffix -ia (Aay-Em-En-Aytche-ia), as gratitude for funding Lieberman's research. The species epithet paragranulata refers to the fact that the species was first regarded as closely related to Dechenella granulata.^[1]

Distribution

A. paragranulata has been collected from the Devonian of Canada (Emsian and Eifelian, Blue Fjord Formation, Bathurst Island, Nunavut).^[1]

Taxonomy

Cladogram of the genera of the subfamily Proetinae, according to Lieberman, 1994, figures 5 and 6

Aayemenaytcheia paragranulata was originally described as a species belonging to the genus Dechenella. Recent cladistic analysis however makes it likely the species is in fact the earliest branch of a clade that further includes Lacunoporaspis, Dechenella, Schizoproetus and Schizoproetoides. So in order to retain the monophyly of the genus Dechenella, a new genus was erected for D. paragranulata.^[1]