A Middle Devonian Trilobite Assemblage from Venezuela

Abstract Three new species of trilobites are described from the upper level of the Cano del Oeste Formation (Middle Devonian) of Venezuela. These taxa include a phacopinine, Viaphacops venezuelensis, n. sp., and two asteropyginines, Rhenops odremani, n. sp., and Greenops perijaensis, n. sp. The biogeographic implications of these records are discussed. Viaphacops is somewhat cosmopolitan in its distribution. The presence of Rhenops in Venezuela represents a profound range extension beyond the Rhenish-Bohemia region of the Old World Realm. The Venezuelan occurrence of Greenops represents a southerly range extension within the Eastern Americas Realm, reinforcing faunal similarities previously recognized among Devonian brachiopods and trilobites of Venezuela and North America.