{{Short description|Extinct genus of trilobites}} {{Automatic taxobox | fossil_range = {{temporal_range|458|448|late Caradoc}}<!---Age of the Caradoc varies among sources---> | image = Nanshanaspis levis.JPG | image_caption = ''N. levis'' | taxon = Nanshanaspis | authority = Zhang & Fan, 1960 | type_species = ''Nanshanaspis levis'' | subdivision_ranks = Species | subdivision = *''N. levis'' <small>Zhang and Fan, 1960</small> *''N. intermedia'' <small>Zhang, 1988<ref name=Tairong>Tairong, Zhang. "NEW MATERIALS OF TAKLAMAKANIINAE FROM THE MIDDLE ORDOCICIAN OF XINJIANG." Xinjiang Geology 4 (1988): 004. [http://en.cnki.com.cn/Article_en/CJFDTotal-XJDI198804004.htm] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160105202240/http://en.cnki.com.cn/Article_en/CJFDTotal-XJDI198804004.htm |date=2016-01-05 }}</ref></small> }}
'''''Nanshanaspis''''' is a genus of asaphid trilobites of the family Raphiophoridae that lived during the late Caradoc of Inner Mongolia, China. Like all raphiophorids it is blind, with a headshield (or cephalon) that is subsemicircular, carrying genal spines and a forward directed spine on the central raised area (or glabella), with the front of the glabella inflated and the natural fracture lines (or sutures) of the cephalon coinciding with its margin. It is easily distinguished from most other raphiophorids by the 3 thorax segments. ''Pseudampyxina'', ''Taklamakania'', and ''Kongqiaoheia'' also have only 3 such segments, while all other raphiophorid genera have at least 5 thorax segments, leading to the erection of the subfamily "Taklamakaniinae" to contain these four genera.<ref name=plimi>ZHANG WENTANG (CHANG WENTANG), 1980. On the Miomera and Polymera (Trilobita). Scientia Sinica 23, 223-234.</ref> "Taklamakaniinae" was dissolved and its members absorbed into Raphiophorinae when further study showed the close similarities the "taklamakaniids" had to the juvenile forms of various raphiophorinids. Specimens of ''Nanshanaspis'', for example, closely resemble juveniles of ''Globampyx trinucleoides''.<ref name='ZWY'>{{cite journal|last1= Zhou|first1= Z.|last2= Webby|first2= B.D.|last3= Yuan|first3= W.|year= 1995|title= Ordovician trilobites from the Yingan Formation of northwestern Tarim, Xinjiang, northwestern China|journal= Alcheringa: An Australasian Journal of Palaeontology|volume= 19|issue= 1|pages= 47–72|doi= 10.1080/03115519508619098|bibcode= 1995Alch...19...47Z}}</ref>
The primary difference between ''Nanshanaspis'' and ''Taklamakania'' is the presence of a long spine emanating from the glabellum of ''Taklamakania'': ''Nanshanaspis'' differs from ''Pseudampyxina'' in the shape of the animals' respective glabella, and ''Nanshanaspis'' differs from ''Kongqiaoheia'' in both glabella variation, and in the structure of the genera's respective pygidia.
== References == {{Reflist}}
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Category:Raphiophoridae Category:Asaphida genera Category:Ordovician trilobites of Asia Category:Fossils of China Category:Fossil taxa described in 1960
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