• Holaspis

    Origin

    Full definition of holaspis

    Noun

    holaspis

    (plural holaspides)
    1. (palaeontology, zoology) A stage in the development of a trilobite at which the creature has gained its adult segmentation, but continues to molt and grow.
      • 2001, Jonathan M. Adrain, Gregory D. Edgecombe, Bruce S. Lieberman (editors), Fossils, Phylogeny, and Form: An Analytical Approach, page 46,A similar situation may also characterize S. wenlockiana, a species with six segments in holaspis, the smallest holaspids of which have similar glabellar lengths to those of the sixth degree meraspis of A. konincki.
      • 2008, Xuejian Zhu, Shanchi Peng, Jingxun Zuo, Revision an Ventral Structure of Guangxiaspis guangxiensis Zhou, 1977 (Trilobita), Isabel Rábano, Rodolfo Gozalo, Diego García-Bellido Capdevila (editors), Advances in Trilobite Research, page 444,The pygidial spines are stout and direct outward in the early holaspis (Fig. 2, A-B, F), but become slender and direct inward in the late holaspis (Fig. 2, D, E).
      • 2009, Michael J. Benton, David A. T. Harper, Introduction to Paleobiology and the Fossil Record, page 366,The holaspis stage has a full complement of thoracic segments for the species but growth continues through further molts and maturity may not be reached until some time after the holaspis stage was reached.

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