page_title: Phacops
section_title: Camouflage
hierarchical_section_title: Phacops / Description / Camouflage
caption_attribution_description: English: Reconstruction of Phacops with a speculative, cryptic "Rorschach" pattern based on the proposed ability to camouflage.
context_page_description: Phacops is a genus of trilobites in the order Phacopida, family Phacopidae, that lived in Europe, northwestern Africa, North and South America and China from the Late Ordovician until the very end of the Devonian, with a broader time range described from the Late Ordovician. It was a rounded animal, with a globose head and large eyes, and probably fed on detritus. Phacops is often found rolled up, a biological defense mechanism that is widespread among smaller trilobites but further perfected in this genus.
context_section_description: There are specimens known of Phacops rana with many irregular black spots. Because similar spots in a specimen of Greenops boothi from the same site are arranged in rows, it may be assumed that they are original and not caused by the fossilisation process. The spots are irregular and have spurs branching outwardly, similar to the melanophores in many extant animals. In one specimen, the black spots are much larger than in another one. It is quite conceivable that changing the size of the melanophores enabled Phacops rana to camouflage itself in different environments.
caption: Reconstruction of Phacops with a speculative, cryptic "Rorschach" pattern based on the proposed ability to camouflage.
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