Paleozoic life of New Brunswick

Lepidodendron, from Ancient Greek λεπίς (lepís), meaning "scale", and δένδρον (déndron), meaning "tree", is an extinct genus of primitive lycopodian vascular plants belonging to the order Lepidodendrales. It is well preserved and common in the fossil record. Like other Lepidodendrales, species of Lepidodendron grew as large-tree-like plants in wetland coal forest environments. They sometimes reached heights of , and the trunks were often over in diameter. They are often known as "scale trees", due to their bark having been covered in diamond-shaped leaf-bases, from which leaves grew during ear

Calamites is a genus of extinct arborescent (tree-like) horsetails to which the modern horsetails (genus Equisetum) are closely related. Unlike their herbaceous modern cousins, these plants were medium-sized trees, growing to heights of . They were components of the understories of coal swamps of the Carboniferous Period (around ).

Pterygotus is an extinct genus of giant predatory eurypterid, a group of extinct aquatic arthropods. Fossils of Pterygotus have been discovered in deposits ranging in age from Middle Silurian to Late Devonian, and have been referred to several different species. Fossils have been recovered from five continents; Australia, Asia, Europe, North America and South America, which indicates that Pterygotus might have had a nearly cosmopolitan (worldwide) distribution. The type species, P. anglicus, was described by Swiss naturalist Louis Agassiz in 1839, who gave it the name Pterygotus, meaning "wing

Eurypterus ( ) is an extinct genus of eurypterid, a group of organisms commonly called "sea scorpions". The genus lived during the Silurian period, from around 432 to 418 million years ago. Eurypterus is by far the most well-studied and well-known eurypterid. Eurypterus fossil specimens probably represent more than 95% of all known eurypterid specimens.

Prototaxites is an extinct genus of large macroscopic eukaryote dating from the Late Silurian until the Late Devonian periods. Prototaxites formed large trunk-like structures up to wide, reaching in height, made up of tiny interwoven tubules around in diameter, making it by far the largest land-dwelling organism of its time.

Cephalaspis (from , 'head' and , 'shield') is a possibly monotypic genus of extinct osteostracan agnathan vertebrate. It was a trout-sized detritivorous fish that lived in the early Devonian.

Hyoliths are an extinct group of invertebrates with small conical shells, known from fossils from the Palaeozoic era. They are at least considered lophotrochozoans, possibly being lophophorates, a group which includes the brachiopods (hyoliths may even be brachiopods themselves), while others consider them as being basal lophotrochozoans, or even molluscs.

Sigillaria is a genus of extinct, spore-bearing, arborescent lycophyte, known from the Carboniferous and Permian periods. It is related to the more famous Lepidodendron, and more distantly to modern quillworts.

Cordaites is a genus of extinct gymnosperms, related to or actually representing the earliest conifers. These trees grew up to tall and stood in dry areas as well as wetlands. Brackish water mussels and crustacea are found frequently between the roots of these trees. Cordaites fossils are most commonly found in rock sections from the Upper Carboniferous () of Europe and the Americas. thumb|left|Leaves of Cordaites lungatus A number of many types from this line are: Cordaites principalis Cordaites ludlowi (named after Ludlow, a coal area in England) Cordaites hislopii. Found in Paleorrota g

is an extinct genus of lobopodian worm characterized by its net-like sclerite armour plates, known from Cambrian deposits around the world. Soft-bodied fossils which preserve more than the sclerites are only known from the Chengjiang Lagerstätte of Yunnan, China.

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 ("volvation"), a biological defense mechanism that is widespread among smaller trilobites but further perfected in this genus.

Favosites is an extinct genus of tabulate coral characterized by polygonal closely packed corallites (giving it the common name "honeycomb coral"). The walls between corallites are pierced by pores known as mural pores which allowed transfer of nutrients between polyps. Favosites, like many corals, thrived in warm sunlit seas, feeding by filtering microscopic plankton with their stinging tentacles and often forming part of reef complexes. The genus had a worldwide distribution from the Late Ordovician to Late Permian. ==Distribution== Favosites had a vast distribution, and its fossils can be

Acutiramus is a genus of giant predatory eurypterid, an extinct group of aquatic arthropods. Fossils of Acutiramus have been discovered in deposits of Late Silurian to Early Devonian age. Eight species have been described, five from North America (including A. cummingsi, the type species) and two from the Czech Republic (with one of them potentially found in Australia as well). The generic name derives from Latin acuto ("acute" or "sharp") and Latin ramus ("branch"), referring to the acute angle of the final tooth of the claws relative to the rest of the claw.

Thelodus (from , 'nipple' and , 'tooth') is an extinct genus of thelodont agnathan that lived during the Silurian period. Fossils have been found in Europe, Asia and North America.

Pecopteris is a very common form genus of leaves. Most Pecopteris leaves and fronds are associated with the marattialean tree fern Psaronius. However, Pecopteris-type foliage also is borne on several filicalean ferns, and at least one seed fern. Pecopteris first appeared in the Devonian period, but flourished in the Carboniferous, especially the Pennsylvanian. Plants bearing these leaves became extinct in the Permian period, due to swamps disappearing and temperatures on Earth dropping.

thumb|right|Thin-section view of Halysites corallum

thumb|Fossil of Psilophyton dawsonii

Paradoxides is a genus of large to very large trilobite found throughout the world during the Middle Cambrian period. One record-breaking specimen of Paradoxides davidis, described by John William Salter in 1863, is . The cephalon was semicircular with free cheeks ending in long, narrow, recurved spines. Eyes were crescent shaped providing an almost 360° view, but only in the horizontal plane. Its elongate thorax was composed of 19–21 segments and adorned with longish, recurved pleural spines. Its pygidium was comparatively small. Paradoxides is a characteristic Middle-Cambrian trilobite of th

Atrypa is a genus of brachiopod with round to short egg-shaped shells covered with many fine radial ridges (or costae). Growth lines form perpendicular to the costae and are spaced approximately 2 to 3 times further apart than the costae.. The pedunculate valve is slightly convex, but oftentimes levels out or becomes slightly concave toward the anterior margin (opposite the hinge and pedicle). The brachial valve is highly convex. Neither valve contains an interarea (a flat area bordering the hinge line, approximately perpendicular with the rest of the valve). Atrypa had a large geographic rang

Palaeophonus (meaning "ancient killer") is one of the oldest known genera of scorpions.

Annularia is a form taxon, applied to fossil foliage belonging to extinct plants of the genus Calamites in the order Equisetales.

Sphenophyllum is a genus in the order Sphenophyllales. It has been placed in the family Sphenophyllaceae.

Stigmaria is a form taxon for common fossils found in Carboniferous rocks. They represent the underground rooting structures of arborescent lycophytes such as Sigillaria and Lepidodendron under the order Lepidodendrales.

Lingulella is a genus of phosphatic-shelled brachiopod. It is known from the Middle Cambrian Burgess Shale (Canada) to the Upper Ordovician Bromide Formation (United States) in North America. 346 specimens of Lingulella are known from the Greater Phyllopod bed, where they comprise 0.66% of the community.

Dalmanites is a genus of trilobite in the order Phacopida. They lived from the Late Ordovician to Middle Devonian. It was named for the Swedish naturalist Johan Wilhelm Dalman.

Leptaena is an extinct genus of mid-sized brachiopod that existed from the Dariwilian epoch to the Emsian epoch, though some specimens have been found in strata as late in age as the Tournasian epoch. Like some other Strophomenids, Lepteana were epifaunal, meaning they lived on top of the seafloor, not buried within it, and were suspension feeders.

Spirifer is a genus of marine brachiopods belonging to the order Spiriferida and family Spiriferidae. Species belonging to the genus lived in the Carboniferous (certainly in the Tournaisian and in the Visean, possibly also in the Serpukhovian and the Bashkirian).

Zosterophyllum was a genus of Silurian-Devonian vascular land plants with naked branching axes on which usually kidney-shaped sporangia were arranged in lateral positions. It is the type genus for the group known as zosterophylls, thought to be part of the lineage from which modern lycophytes evolved. More than 20 species have been described.

Ellipsocephalus Zenker, 1833, is a genus of blind Cambrian trilobite, comprising benthic species inhabiting deep, poorly lit or aphotic habitats. E. hoffi is a common trilobite mainly from central Europe (Czech Republic).

The Sawdoniales are an order or plesion of extinct zosterophylls. The zosterophylls were among the first vascular plants in the fossil record, and share an ancestor with the living lycophytes. The group has been divided up in various ways. In their major cladistic study of early land plants, Kenrick and Crane placed most of the zosterophylls in the Sawdoniales (which they treated as a plesion).

The gall mite genus Pentamerus, established by Roivainen in 1951, is invalid and needs to be renamed. Until this happens, use Pentamerus (mite).

Sphenopteris is a genus of seed ferns containing the foliage of various extinct plants, ranging from the Devonian to Late Cretaceous. One species, S. höninghausi, was transferred to the genus Crossotheca in 1911.

Pertica is a genus of extinct vascular plants of the Early to Middle Devonian (around ). It has been placed in the "trimerophytes", a strongly paraphyletic group of early members of the lineage leading to modern ferns and seed plants.

Agathoxylon (also known by the synonyms Dadoxylon and Araucarioxylon) is a form genus of fossil wood, including massive tree trunks. Although identified from the late Palaeozoic to the end of the Mesozoic, Agathoxylon is common from the Carboniferous to Triassic. Agathoxylon represents the wood of multiple conifer groups, including both Araucariaceae and Cheirolepidiaceae, with late Paleozoic and Triassic forms possibly representing other conifers or other seed plant groups like "pteridosperms".

Samaropsis is a form genus named by Goeppert in 1864. Later Sewart (1917) redefined the taxon to refer only to the seeds.

Alethopteris is a prehistoric plant genus of fossil pteridospermatophytes (seed ferns) that developed in the Pennsylvanian (around ). thumb|left|Alethopteris florentina De Stefani, 1901, Natural History Museum University of Pisa thumb|Alethopteris, at the State Museum of Pennsylvania in Harrisburg.|left thumb|Alethopteris sp.

Doliodus is a genus of cartilaginous fish known from the Early Devonian period of what is now New Brunswick, Canada. It includes a single named species, either D. problematicus or D. latispinosus, which was originally described based on isolated teeth and potentially fin spines, but has since had a well-preserved body fossil assigned. The classification of the genus is uncertain, but it has been considered a member of the order Omalodontiformes. A more complete specimen that some authors assign to the genus shows features that are transitional between the extinct acanthodians and cartilaginous