Asaphus
Asaphus is a genus of trilobites that is known from the Lower and Middle Ordovician of northwestern Europe.
Etymology
The generic name is derived from the Greek word asaphes, meaning "indistinct."Description
The headshield and tailshield are semicircular and without a border. The cephalon is of approximately equal size as the pygidium.The central raised area of the cephalon is long, reaching the frontal margin. It may have faint lateral glabellar furrows or be smooth, and sometimes an inconspicuous tubercle is present just in front of the hardly discernible occipital ring. The natural fracture lines of the head run along the top edges of the compound eye. From the back of the eye these cut to the back of the head and not to the side. The free cheeks are separated from each other anteriorly by a suture at the midline. The corner between the side and the back of the cephalon is rounded or pointed into spines. Eyes holochroal, commonly more or less conical, short or moderate in length. In some evolution lines, the visual surface of the eye is raised on a stalk.
The lateral corners of the palate, visual from the ventral side, are more or less protruding, and the posterior part is forked with two triangular teeth. The reflexed margin of the exoskeleton is broad.
The articulate midlength part of the body consists of 8 segments. Furrows in the parts outside the axis are diagonal.
The pygidium is rounded, and has a long axis with concave, posteriorly parallel sides. Some rings may be faintly defined anteriorly and the axis dissolves in the postaxial field. The areas outside the axis are smooth or very faintly ribbed.
Species
A. expansus synonyms Entomostracites expansus, Entomolithus paradoxus α expansusA. acuminatus Boeck, 1838A. bottnicus Jaanusson A. broeggeri Schmidt, 1898A. cornutus Pander, 1830A. eichwaldi Schmidt A. heckeri A. holmi Schmidt, 1898A. ingrianus Jaanusson, 1953 A. intermedius Lessnikova in Balashova, 1953A. knyrkoi Schmidt A. kotlukovi Lessnikova in Balashova, 1953A. kowalewskii Lawrow, 1856A. latus Pander, 1830A. laevissimus Schmidt, 1898A. lepidurus Neiszkowski, 1859A. minor A. neiszkowskii Schmidt, 1898A. pachyophthalmus A. platycephalus A. plautini Schmidt, 1898A. punctatus Lessnikova, 1949A. raniceps Dalman, 1827A. robustus A. sulvevi Jaanusson A. vicarius- ''A. wahlenbergi''