Trilobites
Order Proetida Suborder Proetina, Superfamily
Proetoidea, Family
Phillipsiidae
Geologic Age: Lower Mississippian (Kinderhookian Stage)
Trilobite
is 17 mm long
Chouteau Formation, Saline County, Missouri
Comments: This member of the last surviving trilobite orders dates
to the Kinderhookian Stage of the Mississippian period, some 359 to 348
million years ago. Note the highly granulose
exoskeleton. In fact, members of the Family Phillipsiidae are the last surviving family of trilobites, with a geologic time range
beginning in the Lower Mississippian (Kinderhookian stage), to the Upper
Permian. The Phillipsiidae are taken as a subfamily within Proetidae
by some trilobite researchers, while others combine it with families
Phillipsiidae and Proetidae.
Also see: American Trilobites
