page_title: Pricyclopyge
section_title: Description
hierarchical_section_title: Pricyclopyge / Description
caption_attribution_description: English: A pygidium of Pricyclopyge longicephala, Order Asaphida, Family Cyclopygidae, 5mm along the axis, dorsal view, found in the Dobrotiva Formation near Ejpovice, Czech Republic, from the Ordovician
context_page_description: Pricyclopyge is a genus of trilobites assigned to the family Cyclopygidae that occurs throughout the Ordovician. Pricyclopyge had an extratropical distribution, and there is evidence that it lived in darker parts of the water column. Pricyclopyge has huge eyes, an inverted pear-shaped glabella, six thorax segments, with on the 3rd two small discs. Pricyclopyge is known from what are today China, the Czech Republic, France, and the United Kingdom.
context_section_description: Like other cyclopygids, Pricyclopyge lacks genal spines. Pricyclopyge has six thorax segments of which the third from the front carries two very characteristic round discs that are presumed to have been bioluminescent organs, and if true, this suggests that  Pricyclopyge swam upside down. It has a wide and stout axis, that tapers gradually backwards until it ends in a semicircle close to the border of the pygidium. The short side lobes (or pleurae) of the thorax segments gradually become wider further back so that the thorax is widest at its back, with the tips of the pleurae of the 6th segment sometimes enlarged, bent backwards and so bordering the pygidium. The pygidium is more than twice as wide as long, the axis showing 3 or 4 clearly defined rings, while segmentation of the pleural area is barely visible. The pygidial border furrow is clear.
caption: Pygidium of P. longicephala
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