Typhlokorynetes

Typhlokorynetes plana is a species of small, button-shaped asaphid trilobites of the family Raphiophoridae that lived during the Early Tremadocian of Vermont, United States.

Typhlokorynetes Temporal range: Early Tremadocian PreꞒ Ꞓ O S D C P T J K Pg N
T. plana
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Trilobita
Order:	Asaphida
Suborder:	Trinucleina
Family:	Raphiophoridae
Subfamily:	Endymioniinae
Genus:	Typhlokorynetes Shaw, 1966[1]
Binomial name
Typhlokorynetes plana (Raymond, 1937)
Synonyms
Warburgella plana Raymond, 1937 Raymondaspis (in part)

Etymology

The generic epithet is a compound word of the Greek words "Typhlos," meaning "blind," and "Korynetes," which means "club-bearer," in reference to the animal's eyeless state, and the glabellum that is shaped in the outline of a club or bowling pin.^[1] The specific name "plana" refers to the flattened nature of the body.

History of taxonomy

The first fossils of this trilobite were described by P. E. Raymond in 1937 as a blind proetid that he named "Warburgella" plana.^[2] In 1959, "W." plana would be redescribed by H. B. Whittington as a species of Raymondaspis in the family Styginidae.^[3] Alan Shaw voiced a similar opinion when he moved it into its own genus and family, Typhlokorynetes in Typhlokorynetidae, in that it maybe a specialized styginid with unusual or aberrant sutures and hypostome anatomy.^[1] During the 1970s, it was then reappraised as a relative of Endymion in Raphiophoridae.

Occurrence

Specimens are known from the Highgate Formation in northwestern Vermont.