Balnibarbi (trilobite)

Balnibarbi is an extinct genus of trilobites in the family Olenidae. They are known from fossils excavated in Norway. They lived during the early part of the Arenig stage of the Ordovician Period, a faunal stage that occurred about 479 to 472 million years ago.^[2]

Balnibarbi Temporal range: Early Arenig[1]
Balnibarbi pulvurea, and B. erugata
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Trilobita
Order:	Ptychopariida
Family:	Olenidae
Genus:	Balnibarbi Fortey, 1974
Species
See text

The genus is ancestral to, and co-existed sympatrically with, the better-known Cloacaspis.^[3]

It was named for the fictional country of Balnibarbi featured in Gulliver's Travels, a place "populated by eccentric natural philosophers."^[3]

Species include:^[2]

• Balnibarbi ceryx
• Balnibarbi erugata
• Balnibarbi pulvurea
• Balnibarbi scimitar
• Balnibarbi sombrero
• Balnibarbi tholia