The paleontologists named the genus for fantasy writer J. R. R. Tolkien, author of The Lord of the Rings.

However, no specimens of Comura are intact enough to be used for a phylogenetic analysis in comparison to the new species of Tolkienia,[2] so its taxonomic status remains uncertain.

These include a partial fossil from Michigan previously placed in Greenops and a species proposed in 2003 by Martin Basse named †Tolkienia wiltzense.

[4] Fossils of the genus have been extracted from the site of Neuerburg 1 in Germany,[5] the Armorican Massif in France, and the Cantabrian Mountains in Spain.

[4] These trilobites were capable of fast movement, and would have lived on the surface of the benthic zone and preyed on small fauna.