Funeralaspis deathvalleyensis

Order Odontopleurida / Family Odontopleuridae

funer, the Funeral Mountains in Death Valley National Park, California, USA; -aspis, Greek, shield

Death Valley, Death Valley National Park, California, USA

Dorsal shield densely covered with nodes of varying size. Cranidium subtrapezoidal; eyes and palpebral lobes positioned very far back; occipital ring large and raised, with a large occipital node and a pair of short occipital spines on the posterior margin; librigenae wide, lateral border usually with 11 marginal spines, genal spines medium-length. Each thoracic axial ring with a pair of large nodes, each posterior pleural spine with a prominent node at the base, the rest with finer nodes. Pygidial axis with two axial rings and a degenerate terminal piece, each ring with a pair of large nodes; five pairs of pygidial pleural spines, the third being a main spine far longer than the others.

This species is the type species of the genus Funeralaspis and is the earliest member of the subfamily Odontopleurinae (Adrain et al., 2023).