Westergaardites

{{Short description|Genus of trilobites}}

{{Italic title}}

{{technical|date=May 2023}}

{{Taxobox

| name = Westergaardites

| fossil_range = {{fossil range|Upper Cambrian}}

| image =

| image_caption =

| regnum = Animalia

| phylum = Arthropoda

| classis = Trilobita

| ordo = Ptychopariida

| subordo = Olenina

| familia = Olenidae

| subfamilia = Triarthrinae

| genus = Westergaardites

| genus_authority = Throedson, 1937

| subdivision_ranks = Species

| subdivision =

• W. pelturaeformis Throedson, 1937 (type)

}}

Westergaardites is an Upper Cambrian trilobite that is known from the Eastern Tian Shan (Central Asia). It is related to Triarthrus, but can easily be distinguished from it by an extremely long exoskeleton, anteriorly placed eyes, a thorax of 19 segments with an extremely wide axis, and very narrow pleural regions, pleural spines, and a pygidium with marginal spines.{{cite book|last= Moore|first= R.C.|year= 1959|title= Arthropoda I - Arthropoda General Features, Proarthropoda, Euarthropoda General Features, Trilobitomorpha|publisher= Geological Society of America/University of Kansas Press|series= Treatise on Invertebrate Paleontology|volume= Part O.|pages=1–560|location= Boulder, Colorado/Lawrence, Kansas|isbn= 0-8137-3015-5}}