Schmidtiellus

{{Short description|Extinct genus of trilobites}}

{{Automatic taxobox

|fossil_range = Late Atdabanian{{cite journal| last = Sepkoski| first = Jack| title = A compendium of fossil marine animal genera (Trilobita entry)| journal = Bulletins of American Paleontology| volume = 364| pages = 560| date = 2002| url = http://strata.ummp.lsa.umich.edu/jack/showgenera.php?taxon=307&rank=class| access-date = 1 December 2008}}

|taxon = Schmidtiellus

|authority = Moberg, 1906

|subdivision_ranks = Species

|subdivision =

• S. mickwitzi
• S. reetae

}}

Schmidtiellus is an extinct genus of holmiid trilobites from the Cambrian of Poland.{{cite web|url=https://paleobiodb.org/classic/basicTaxonInfo?taxon_no=19160|title=†Schmidtiellus Moberg 1906 (trilobite)|website=The Paleobiology Database}}{{Cite journal |last=Lieberman |first=Bruce |year=1999 |title=Systematic revision of the Olenelloidea (Trilobita, Cambrian). |url=https://elischolar.library.yale.edu/peabody_museum_natural_history_bulletin/45/ |journal=Bulletin of the Yale University Peabody Museum of Natural History |volume=45 |pages=1–150 |via=Yale University EliScholar}} As of 2017, a Schmidtiellus reetae fossil from 530 mya, collected in Saviranna in northern Estonia, is the oldest known fossilized eye. The structure is similar to the compound eyes of modern-day dragonflies and bees, but with (~100) ommatidia with lenses spaced further apart.{{Cite journal |last=Schoenemann |first=Brigitte |date=December 4, 2017 |title=Structure and function of a compound eye, more than half a billion years old |url=https://www.pnas.org/doi/full/10.1073/pnas.1716824114 |journal=Biological Sciences |volume=114 |issue=51 |via=PNAS}} There are no lens structures on the top of the eye, so their vision only extends about 25-30 degrees above them.