Chenops

{{Short description|Genus of small freshwater animals}}

{{Italic title}}

{{Taxobox

| name = Chenops

| fossil_range = {{fossil_range|Barremian}}

| image = Chenops_yixianensis.jpg

| image_caption = Artist's reconstruction

| regnum = Animalia

| phylum = Arthropoda

| subphylum = Crustacea

| classis = Branchiopoda

| ordo = Notostraca

| genus = Chenops

| genus_authority = Hegna & Ren, 2010

| subdivision_ranks = Species

| subdivision =

• C. oblongus (Oleynikov, 1968)
• C. yixianensis Hegna & Ren, 2010 (type)

}}

Chenops is an extinct genus of notostracan which existed in the Yixian Formation, Inner Mongolia, and the Jehol fauna of China during the early Cretaceous period (Barremian age).{{cite journal |author=Thomas A. Hegna |author2=Ren Dong |year=2010 |title=Two new "notostracans", Chenops gen. nov. and Jeholops gen. nov. (Crustacea: Branchiopoda: ?Notostraca) from the Yixian Formation, Northeastern China |journal=Acta Geologica Sinica - English Edition |volume=84 |issue=4 |pages=886–894 |doi=10.1111/j.1755-6724.2010.00232.x|bibcode=2010AcGlS..84..886H }} The genus was erected by Thomas A. Hegna and Ren Dong in 2010 to describe the Yixian species, Chenops yixianensis. A second species, originally described as "Prolepidurus oblongus", from the Jehol fauna, was redescribed as C. oblongus.

As with the genus Jeholops, and unlike the modern genera Triops and Lepidurus, Chenops lacked eyes.