Kingdom Animalia Family Damesellidae Order Odontopleurida | Class Trilobita Phylum Arthropoda | |
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Genus Neodrepanura
Özdikmen, 2006 People also search for Damesellidae, Monkaspis, Drepanura, Glyptagnostus reticulatus, Lichida, Asaphida | ||
Neodrepanura is an extinct genus of damesellid odontopleurid trilobite known from numerous, mostly disarticulated fossils found in Late Cambrian-aged marine limestones of Eastern and Southeastern Asia, especially of Northern China. It lived about from 501 to 497 million years ago during the Guzhangian faunal stage of the late Cambrian Period.
Species of Neodrepanura are better known under the older synonym, Drepanura: the genus was renamed as Neodrepanura in 2006 by Özdikmen when "Drepanura" was discovered to be preoccupied by a springtail described by Schoett 1891.
The pygidia, particularly those of N. premesnili, are mined by the Chinese for use as "bat stones" or "swallow stones," as good luck charms and traditional medicines. In 2011, the first intact specimen of N. premensnili was found in the Kushan Formation, enabling researchers to better examine the external anatomy of the genus.