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Walliserops sp.
Family: Acastidae
Era: Early Devonian
Locality: Certain Eifelian layer in the Jbel Issoumour
Size: 3"
Trident-1
This is one of my favorite Devonian middle-sized trilobites. This one
carries the best headgear of all his peers, I mean, look at him! He's holding a
trident! Aside from the obvious trident, he's got a series of sharp little
spines along the back, and sharp little tail spines. He also has fine compound
lense eyes protected by head spines.
So what is the trident for? I personally would like to think it's for stabbing
at stuff. I mean, what do we (at least in Mediterranean times) use tridents for?
Fishing! And stabbing from a distance. The tridents on these guys are nearly
their body length. If they managed to get up some speed, they could puncture
something. Or maybe it's for harvesting underwater soft bodied plants and
animals??? Or maybe just to use as a sail in a strong current, I could picture
these guys being carried along by the water.
Look at the tridents on the following guys, notice that there are minor
differences in how they're pointed. Not sure why they're doing that. Maybe it's
hard but movable???
Trident-2
Don't believe me that they're hunters? Look at him, he's got a dismantled baby
phacops next to him! Also note that the trident itself has minor variations in
the prongs.
Trident-3
I've seen preparations of these guys carrying their tridents above the ground.
This helps my idea that they're used for harvesting soft plants that are
clinging to the bottom.
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