Odontopleurids tend to have convex, bar-shaped cephalons, and lobed, knob-shaped glabella that extend to, or almost to the anterior margin.

Many, if not almost all odontopleurids have long spines that are derived either from the margins of the exoskeleton, or from granular or tubercular ornamentation, or both.

The pygidium tends to be very small, and invariably has long spines emanating from it in all known genera.

Genera of Damesellidae are restricted to Middle to Upper Cambrian marine strata, and may represent a transition between Cambrian-aged lichids, and odontopleurids of Odontopleuridae.

The odontopleurids of Odontopleuridae first appear in the Upper Cambrian, and go extinct before the end of the Frasnian stage of the late Devonian.