Lepidocoleus
{{Short description|Extinct genus of annelids}}
{{Automatic taxobox
| oldest_fossil = Late Ordovician
| youngest_fossil = Late Devonian
| image =
| image_caption =
| taxon = Lepidocoleus
| authority = Faber, 1886
| subdivision_ranks = Species
| subdivision =
- {{extinct}}Lepidocoleus caliburnus
- {{extinct}}Lepidocoleus shurikenus
}}
Lepidocoleus is a genus of extinct armored annelid worm in the class Machaeridia. Two notable species are L. caliburnus or the "Excalibur worm", and L. shurikenus, or the "shuriken worm".{{Cite web|title=Fossils of 400-million-year-old 'Excalibur worm' discovered in Australia|url=https://www.livescience.com/amp/devonian-excalibur-worm-shuriken-worm-fossil|website=Livescience.com|date=2 December 2021}} The creature had a "suit" of armor running down its body in the form of overlapping calcite crystals. This worm probably lived in shallow water reefs feeding on organic waste.{{Cite journal|title=Sclerite assembly, articulation and protective system of Lower Devonian machaeridians|url=https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/spp2.1410|journal=Papers in Palaeontology|year=2021|doi=10.1002/spp2.1410|last1=Jacquet|first1=Sarah M.|last2=Selly|first2=Tara|last3=Schiffbauer|first3=James D.|last4=Brock|first4=Glenn A.|volume=8 |s2cid=243825597|url-access=subscription}} It lived from the Hirnantian of the upper Ordovician to the Famennian of the Devonian.{{Cite web|title=Lepidocoleus {{extinct}}|url=https://www.mindat.org/taxon-P7390.html|website=Mindat.org}}