Nepeidae

Nepeidae Temporal range: Drumian to Guzhangian PreЄ Є O S D C P T J K Pg N
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Trilobita
Order:	Ptychopariida
Suborder:	Ptychopariina
Superfamily:	Ptychoparioidea
Family:	Nepeidae Whitehouse, 1939
genera
Nepea Ferenepea Loxonepea Penarosa

The Nepeidae are a family of trilobites, that lived during the late Middle Cambrian - earliest Upper Cambrian in what are today Australia, Antarctica, China and New Zealand. The Nepeidae can be recognized by a vaulted area between the front of the glabella and the frontal border, eye ridges that extend outward and slightly forward from the front of the glabella, and fixed cheeks that cut into the free cheeks at the inside of the eye, and that extend backwards, forming the inner base of the genal spines. The genal spines, however, are part of the free cheeks and extend backward at least half the length of the thorax. The thorax has at least 20 segments. The tail shield (or pygidium) is small.^[1]

References

1. Paterson, J.R. (2005). "Systematics of the Cambrian trilobite family Nepeidae, with revision of Australian species". Plaeontology 48 (3): 479–517. doi:10.1111/j.1475-4983.2005.00467.x.