Its fossils have been found in the Burgess Shale of Canada and the Jince Formation of the Czech Republic.

[1] Fossils are both rare and poorly known; the genus was described by Walcott in 1918 and has not been reexamined, though it was briefly reviewed in the 1990s and has been included in a number of cladistic analyses.

One analysis has resolved the Helmetiiida as a robust clade and the closest relatives of trilobites.

Unlike trilobites, the margin of the head shield is concave, ending in a spine on each corner.

The central region shows paired muscle scars and filamentous structures interpreted as limbs.