Redlichia
genus of trilobites
Redlichia is a genus of redlichiid trilobite in the family Redlichiidae, with large to very large species (up to 35 centimetres or 14 inches long). They are characterised by a flat body plan, prominent genial spines and for some species, a distinguished axial spine. Fossils of various species are found in Lower Cambrian (Toyonian)-aged marine strata from China, Korea, Pakistan, the Himalayas, Iran, Spain, southern Siberia, and Antarctica, and from Middle Cambrian (Ordian)-aged marine strata of Australia.
Description
Redlichia has a rather flat and thinly calcified dorsal exoskeleton of inverted egg-shaped outline, about 1½× longer than wide, measured across the base of the genal spines and disregarding the spine on the 11th segment of the articulated middle part of the body (or thorax). The headshield (or cephalon) is semicircular, about ⅓× as long as the body, with clear genal spines that are a smooth continuation of the border, that extend backward and outward and curving to be near parallel near their tips, which typically extend to the backhalf of the articulated middle part of the body (or thorax). The thorax consists of 11-17 segments, with the 11th from the front bearing a backward directed spine on the midline.
Taxonomy
Redlich originally named the genus Hoeferia in 1899. It turned out however, that this name was already given to an arcid bivalve by Bittner in 1894, rendering it an unavailable junior homonym. This is why in 1902, Cossmann renamed Hoeferia Redlich, 1899 as Redlichia, in honor of Redlich.
Mesodema Whitehouse, 1939, Dongshania Lin in Qiu et al., 1983, and Spinoredlichia Liu, 1975, are all considered to be synonyms of Redlichia.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Redlichia” as genus of trilobites. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
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The subject matters to the science & nature register because the source frames it as genus of trilobites. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
The date and method of observation matter as much as the stated conclusion, especially where classification or consensus has changed. The source revision retrieved here is dated May 16, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1246618. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1899, 1894, 1902 and 1939.
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This entry incorporates text from “Redlichia” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.